Aphrael Strikes Again
by Gaia caecilia
Summary: As the title suggests, the Child Goddess, Aphrael has decided to matchmake again, though she has to go rather further afield for the girls this time.
1. Chapter 1

Here it is, for those avidly waiting for my next story. IT will only be posted once a week until later notice as i have limitted writing time due to exams and the suchlike. WIll probably speed up posting as and when i get writing time and things like that.

Chapter 1

Of Spoiled little princesses and godesses

Princess Danae sat in one corner of the nursery, sulking. Since Talen had entered his Noviate with the Pandions in Demos, she had hardly seen the thief. That combined with the sudden come down after all the excitement in Tamuli over the last year or so, made Danae very bored.

Even though she complained to Sparhawk about being very busy when he was going on to much or asking stupid questions, there was suddenly very little for her to do. About the most significant thing going on was calming her family about the fact Sparhawk, in the form of Anakha, had gone and killed another god. Admittedly, both needed destroying, but it made all the other gods and goddesses nervous and after the fall of Azash more than six years previously, their nerves had nearly killed huge numbers of people through the ensuing famine. The world was only just recovering from one wave of bad weather, luck and crops and the last thing she needed was for the gods to start sulking again. Never mind that she just happened to be sulking herself.

Absently, Danae let her awareness spread out to make sure no-one was nearby. Once she was sure of that, she returned to her real form before splitting into the two separate forms of Danae and Flute. After a short conversation, Flute left off to go somewhere else. 'Somewhere else' just happened to be to check on the three Knights from her father's band of friends who just happened to be bachelors. Well, not including Berit, who had some time yet before he needed sorting out. It was Ulath, Tynian and Bevier who she was going to look in on.

First, the child goddess found the uptight young Cyrinic Knight, who had just recently returned home and was beginning to help prepare for some sort of memorial for Abriel and the other Cyrinic Knights that had fallen at the hand of Klael and his monsters. Bevier mostly got the job of helping prepare because, unlike the rest of his brother Knights – the few surviving ones at least – he had taken ship home and so was rather quicker to arrive back. The other reason was because he had been elected interim preceptor of the Cyrinic Order until later notice. Aphrael suspected that it would be the same sort of 'later notice' that applied to Sparhawk's interim preceptorship. The title would stick until Dolmant and the hierocracy got bored one day and actually bothered to vote them the preceptors permanently.

Ulath and Tynian had returned home as well, though with their preceptors who had come back by boat with them. Both were injured and it had been decided that the hundred boats Sorgi had brought the 1500 Knights and Tynian to Tamuli on would be used to transport the worst of the surviving wounded, as well as the two wounded preceptors of the militant orders. Bergsten was leading all the other Knights back via the land route.

It was depressing watching all the humans prepare for memorials to the Church Knights who had died, somewhere a little short of half in the end, primarily Cyrinics, and Aphrael decided the world really did need cheering up. It was almost like they hadn't won, the way people were behaving.

Aphrael was very glad that people couldn't see her incarnation as Flute right now because a rather worrying smile had spread across her face as she thought. Ulath, Tynian and Bevier needed wives, there was no doubt about that, and though Ehlana had declared the former two 'hopeless', Aphrael could think of a few places to get them appropriate girls. She would just have to talk to the Elene god, and possibly do some complicated inter-world negotiations. Since there didn't seem an appropriate girl on either the Eosian or Tamul continents, she would have to find some somewhere else and there was one world she suspected was just _perfect_. It had humans, who had at least one religion very similar to the Elene faith and though the women there were noticeably different in terms of personality, historically they had had women similar to Elene ones and so _should _be able to cope with a world change.

Next trick, once she'd got the necessary permission, she had to find the girls...

XXX

The said unfortunates were sitting in a house in Canterbury, near the St Dunstan's area. The eldest was a petite, strawberry-blonde with a thin-ish face, pale skin and pale blue eyes. Her hair had a slight tendency towards frizz and reached down just below her shoulders.

The next one had very long, dark auburn hair, which was actually dyed that colour; naturally her hair was a dark-ish mid-brown colour. When her mother had offered to pay for her to have her hair done at a top salon, she had jumped at the opportunity and got – amongst other things – her hair dyed. One advantage of a professional doing it was the colour looked natural. This young lady, a year younger than her tiny friend was by far the tallest, reaching the height of 5'7", as opposed to 5'2" in her older friend and 5'4" in the remaining girl. Her face was rather rounder, though not exactly round or plump. She had high cheekbones and larger, dark grey-blue eyes that held a permanently cynical expression.

The last youngest one differed from the other two in that, unlike their basically Celtic looks, she had the stereotypical Latin thing going on. Skin a pale shade of olive and curves enhanced by her being a bit higher on the weight scale made her look very much like the Latin temptress of common culture and her shoulder-length, black hair did nothing to offset the image. The one difference was that she too had blue eyes.

All three were there as students at the Universities the city was home to. The elder two, Sophie and Anna, were students at the University of Kent at Canterbury while the youngest was at Christ Church Canterbury, sometimes jokingly referred to as the little brother (or sister, in this case) of UKC. The two Universities taught widely differing subjects and between them resulted in a large portion of the Cathedral City's population.

Each girl was a year apart in age from the previous, give or take the odd month here or there. Anna was the only one of the trio not to have taken a gap year after school and so was actually in the same year group as Sophie – studying for their final year, while Francesca was two years down in her first year. As much as everything else about the trio differed, so did their degree subjects. Sophie studied Classical and Archaeological Studies, while Anna did Politics and Philosophy, and Francesca did Religious Studies and Teaching – something that had earned her plus points with Anna's mother, who had done the same at Canterbury Christ Church twenty years previously.

As wildly differing in appearance and subjects of study as they were, they all had some things in common, hence their friendship. The first was a wicked sense of humour, which was more than a little warped. The second was their fascination with politics, well Anna and Francesca were rabid politicians – one a signed up member of the Tory (Conservative for non-English people) and the other paid up to the SP (socialist party) – Sophie just put up with it and many a joke about her being the obligatory Liberal. She came from Somerset, one of the few places in England that regularly got Liberal seats in the election.

All three happily sat there gassing about Fresher's Week, essays, University and other strange things, unaware that the child goddess' scheming mind was going descend upon them and change their cosy little world upside down.

There were some Knights that were in for a shock...

XXX

Aphrael sauntered into the austere office of the Elene god, where he was sitting behind a large desk doing paperwork. What need did a god have for paperwork of heaven's sake? Any who _chose_ to do paperwork _must_ be boring. He did, however, pick Aphrael up and kiss her a few times. She very nearly purred at how well she'd got him trained, even in he was an old stick in the mud.

He was not, however, amused at her proposal. Granted, he had no sense of humour so he was _never _amused but...

"Aphrael! You can't just bring three women from another world because you think three of _my_ children need wives. Or have you forgotten that the Church Knights are mine. Sparhawk is one thing, he is in Anakha, but those three? They are mine, and those girls you want to find them belong to a god of an entirely different world! How do you plan to deal with that?" He could be so tiresome at times.

"Why are you complaining? I'm only going to increase the number of your worshippers and as for getting permission to take them, you know I can get into anyone's heart with a few kisses, it worked with the troll gods, didn't it?" The Elene god shivered. Aphrael sometimes went too far and kissing a troll god definitely classified as 'too far'. "All I'm asking for is that you allow me to find them girls to marry. What's wrong with that?"

The other deity just sighed and gave in, with Aphrael it was just easier to let her get her way and since she was apparently trying to get him more worshippers – even if she probably did intend to poach them at a later date – he didn't really have much room to complain. He did, however, look forward to the day that Aphrael didn't get something she wanted.

XXX

It took several months for Aphrael to find what she was looking for, in the form of a trio of friends in an area that had once been like much of rural Eosia. They seemed as good as she was going to get. She hadn't decided who would get which Knight yet, she was sure the girls could work out it amongst themselves, she supposed, and the next thing she had to do was work out how to get them were she wanted them. That would prove a problem.


	2. Chapter 2

Sorry it's slightly late, but as i did warn, i'm rather busy right now (i have less than a week to do my bit of the group essay and i've barely started! panic!). I will try to be regular about posting. It should get better soon, the easter holidays start a week on friday.

Elenium/Tamuli story 2

Sephrenia swept Flute up into her arms and looked at her little sister suspiciously.

"What have you been up to, Aphrael? I know that expression." Flute attempted to look innocent and failed, her older sister knew her too well. They were riding from Atan to Pelosia via Sarsos, which was a few days away. Surrounding Sephrenia, Vanion and Flute were the Peloi and several Atans, who were also accompanying Atana Mirtai and Domi Kring for the second part of their wedding. The happy couple rode nearby, and seemed a bit distracted –Kring more than Mirtai it seemed.

"I'll tell you tonight with the others, it will soon be important." Sephrenia sighed, knowing better than to try and get anything now. That night they sat round the fire and, after several pointed looks from Sephrenia, Aphrael got everyone's attention.

"Tomorrow, when you are riding along, on the road you will find three girls, who are very confused and dressed extremely strangely. They are from another world, they are human, but extremely different from any girls you know – in personality at least. They all look like normal Elenes, but they're not. I brought them here from another world for a purpose, though they haven't been warned about it and won't know what is going on at all. I would have done it differently, but I couldn't think of any better way. They are to go with you and then the Peloi, who are to deliver them on to Elenia, and Sparhawk will deal with them from there."

Everyone spent ages asking questions of course, which was annoying, but humans just had to ask what they didn't need to know, but, eventually, they go the idea and accepted it.

It was around mid-morning that they came across the girls Aphrael had mentioned. They were indeed dressed very strangely. The tallest wore a tiny skirt made of a blue fabric that was quite rough and probably quite hard wearing even if it was unfamiliar. With it was a loose top with a hood sewn on it (AN: hoodie). On the left side of the chest was a coat of arms embroidered and on the other side of her chest were two words in white writing. The smallest, a pale girl, wore a similar garment but in a different colour with different words written on the right side and the third did also, though hers did not have a coat of arms, but three large words across the front in white outlined grey. The latter two both wore trousers made of that same fabric the first's skirt had been but the third's were black and skin-tight. The smallest's was of a strange, straight cut and had faded patches that looked deliberate.

The shoes were as alien as their clothes. The one in the tiny skirt wore charcoal coloured and over the knee, they were actually the closest to the local style of riding-boots, though there seemed somehow slightly different than was usual. They also slightly resembled the boots worn by sailors. The tiny one had a pair of ankle-high shoes that Sparhawk and the others could not see how it was done up (AN: velcro trainers). The third had slightly different short boots of something that resembled canvas that was a shade of sky-blue with things written in white. They were laced up with white woven laces. (AN: sneakers).

All three girls were unconscious on the floor. They stopped to pick them up before carrying on. The girls were placed on a wagon nearby and both Sephrenia and Aphrael stayed near them for when they woke up. It wasn't til they were looking for some place to stop for lunch that the girls started to awaken.

The tallest was the first to awaken. It took her a short while to get from 'coming out of sleep' to awake, but when she regained consciousness enough to register the world around her, her move to consciousness was lightning fast. Within seconds, she was sitting up and looking round with wide eyes and pale face. After not long she regained the power of speech as well.

"Where the hell am I? And who are you?" She looked like she wanted to ask more questions, but couldn't think how to word them. Aphrael climbed into the shaken girl's lap and kissed her cheek. In return, she wrapped her arms around the child goddess and gently kissed her forehead, not taking her eyes off of Sephrenia. The aforementioned lady hesitated before answering,

"I am Sephrenia, High Priestess of Aphrael and the little girl you are currently holding is the child goddess Aphrael herself." Surprisingly enough, she didn't react much to that, other than to nod her head. Sephrenia was a little surprised by that. "I note an unusual lack response to that. Are you okay?" Her lack of reaction was actually quite worrying.

"If it's true, then what is the point in disbelieving you? If you're a bunch of delusional nutters, then what good is it me telling you so? Delusional nutters might have an unpredictable response and since at least some of you are armed to the teeth then that response has some potential toward fatality and since I'm kind of attached to my life..." Sephrenia smiled. Well, that was an interesting way of putting it. "Now could you possibly tell me where I am? I can't be anywhere near where I live, because there isn't such a thing as countryside anywhere near my home. There are fairly rural bits, but nothing really definable as countryside."

Sephrenia smiled at that, she probably didn't realise just how far from home she was.

"May I ask your name first? I think the general orientation lecture would be better when all three of you have woken up. It will almost certainly shock you, as will the reasons, well, any reasons you can get out of my goddess that is." Sephrenia smiled wryly, and almost cautiously, the girl smiled back.

"I'm Anna. My dear little anorexic hobbit over there is Sophie," she jabbed her thumb at the shortest one with the pale complexion "The other one is Francesca, Fran for short. You'll find we use a range of alternate names for each other, not always entirely polite." With the second introduction, she had pointed at the other girl. Once again she smiled slightly, as if she were nervous which was understandable really.

Sephrenia raised an eyebrow at Anna.

"Little anorexic hobbit?" she asked curiously. It seemed a strange term.

"Hobbits are a race from a favourite fiction book of ours, one of the main racial features is being very short – hence her being a hobbit. She is also disgustingly thin and light hence the anorexic bit, though she isn't really anorexic because she eats properly and still manages to stay tiny, which is seriously unfair." Sephrenia had to laugh. She was going to like this girl.

Not long afterwards 'Sophie' woke up and she was a little less calm about it all, though Aphrael moved to her lap and probably smoothed things over significantly. The last to wake up was 'Fran', who just plain 'freaked out' as Anna put it. Surprisingly, Anna calmed her in something closely resembling the ways Aphrael used. She pulled the other girl into a hug and talked at her until her friend got a grip on herself.

During lunch came the explanations. Anna's reaction was to look at them, chin downwards and eyebrows raised, almost as if she were looking up from a book at something she didn't quite believe. The other two were in more obvious states of shock. Sephrenia got this impression the Anna was rather hard to shock – or at least didn't react to shock much. She was the first to speak.

"So let me get this right, your little goddess on some whim or other, decided to bring us across worlds and drop us on a roadside to be found by some people, who still think swords and bows are the last word in combat? And we have just got to stick with it, no matter how much deicide seems like a good idea right now." Vanion, who had joined the conversation when they had stopped for lunch, smiled wryly and nodded.

"I wouldn't advise asking what plans she had for you three, even if she tells you, you probably won't like them."

"And we like what's going on now?" she asked sardonically. She suddenly grinned mischievously. "If we're going to a royal court, does that mean we get pretty dresses?" Sophie giggled, while Fran rolled her eyes. It was obviously a running joke between the three. Sephrenia raised a questioning eyebrow. "Oh, Sophie and I adore pretty dresses and collect them. Fran isn't into them much, but puts up with our preoccupation, and our window shopping. She did look nice in that one she wore to my prom, even if she _was_ falling out of it a little." The last comment earned her a dig in the ribs from her friend, who seemed to have gone a little pink. Sephrenia got this impression that there were a lot of friendly digs between the trio, most often on the part of Anna, who was presently doing most of the talking.

XXX

The next day, the girls sat in the back of the wagon talking amongst themselves. Once they had got over the shock, they seemed to be taking it in their stride. Anna seemed to have been selected to ask questions whenever they came up, though there seemed to be a little bit of argument on the point.

One thing they found out was that the baggy garments the girls all wore went over another top that they called 'T-shirts'. Anna's T-shirt was black and had writing on. Everyone laughed when she told them what the writing said.

"It says 'we'll get along fine, just as soon as you learn to worship me'. I've got some others at home, which Fran gave me. One says 'I'm only smiling because they haven't found the bodies yet' another says 'sarcasm is just one more service I offer' and fun things like that. They're all very silly, but I like them." Sephrenia smiled.

"I think the one you're wearing would be good for Aphrael, it seems appropriate somehow." All three girls grinned back, while Flute glared at them. She didn't seem to find the joke very funny. Anna rolled her eyes, walked over to the child goddess and picked her up. She kissed the little girl's cheeks a few times and Aphrael stopped sulking. This was going to work out just fine.


	3. Chapter 3

Yay! next chapter up. Also, i've just gotta finish my last assignment today (for 2pm) and then i only have 3 exams until september! woot! (does little celebratory dance)

Anyway...

On with the story

Chapter 3

Two days later, they arrived in Sarsos and the three girls were housed with Sephrenia. Much to Sephrenia's surprise, none of them reacted much to the sight of the city. The few Elenes who had seen the city had noticeable reactions before, but none of them seemed all that bothered, bar just looking round curiously at a new place. She supposed she shouldn't think of them as Elenes even though they looked like it. Absently, she moved her horse back slightly so she could hear their conversation.

"Pretty, isn't it? And it's got a sort of charming olde worlde-ness without too much of the stinky bits," Anna commented. 'Olde worlde-ness' Sephrenia eventually worked out approximately as 'quaint' in her vocabulary. She had never heard her city referred to like that before and found it rather strange. It was usually how the _Elene_ cities were described. She wondered what cities where they came from were like.

"It beats a concrete jungle, that is for certain. It is sort of like the Roman cities, with all the marble and stuff," Sophie commented thoughtfully. Fran just looked at her cynically.

"How exactly would you know? All the Roman cities got destroyed yonks ago, when the Roman Empire fell."

Anna answered,

"It's called pictures, darling, and archaeology, you know, Sophie's speciality? On the Palatine Hill, there's Augustus' house, that guy that was the first Emperor of Rome that came along after the deposition of democracy and all that, with lots of pretty, very well preserved pictures on the wall. Ostia is a pretty amazing example of Roman architecture as well; I managed to climb to the third story of a building there." There was no missing the sarcasm in Anna's tone of voice and Fran just rolled her eyes.

"Whatever you say, you two are the experts. Who cares anyway? As long as we get some new clothes and a proper bath, then I really am not bothered about the architecture." All three laughed. It had become clear that all three were very interested about bathing and clean clothes. All three had been wrapped in styric robes before they entered the city, which they wore over their clothes, though without their hoodies. They all clearly wanted a change of clothing, however.

Once at the house, they were shown to a bathing room and happily sunk into the water while Sephrenia applied a little magic to providing them with more suitable clothing. The three girls took a very long time in the baths and were far too happy with their new clothing, something both Sephrenia and Vanion found funny.

Once dinner was over, Flute decided to do rather fuller explanations than she had wanted in front of the Peloi or the Atans.

"Right, now for the explanations in further detail." She glared at her sister as she heard a muttered 'finally'. "You are aware I brought Fran, Anna and Sophie here for a reason. That reason is called Tynian, Bevier and Ulath."

"Is it a coincidence that there are three of us to three of them?" Anna interrupted. Flute glared at her, she should not interrupt, nor be as quick on the uptake.

"No, it isn't, as a matter of fact. Since there doesn't seem to be any girl in this world for them to marry, I brought you three, as you seem to suit them better. I don't particularly care which one each of you has, I'll let you choose..."

"Oh, you're _so_ kind!" Fran exclaimed sarcastically earning another glare from the child goddess. "What? You didn't expect us to thank you for bringing us from our own lives to another world to marry guys we've never met, are of a different religion, culture and just about everything other than species, do you? Hadn't it occurred to you we might not actually appreciate it?" Aphrael glared, refusing to admit the girl had a point, partly because Sephrenia was smiling into her hand and trying not to laugh.

XXX

Shortly afterwards, the girls left with the Peloi and the Atans, under Kring's personal protection – with added help from Mirtai, someone no-one was going to argue with.

Once they had gone through Astel, they travelled across Zemoch and through to Pelosia. Once in the grasslands the wild horsemen called home, they were met by the rest of the Peloi, and their womenfolk. In mark of respect, the three girls were housed in the same tent – well pavilion really – as Kring's mother and sisters. He had already sent forward word to prepare, both for the wedding and to provide more clothing for the girls. At least this lot would be Elene style clothing.

The day or so after they arrived, the girls sat back, faded into the background and enjoyed watching the goings on of the females of Kring's family. Before they could marry, Mirtai had to arrange a split of possessions between her and Kring's mothers and then find husbands for his sisters.

The sisters hated Mirtai like poison, mostly because as soon as Kring married her, they would become possessionless spinsters, depending upon Mirtai. The rest was because Mirtai, as she had threatened in Tamuli, took the eight of them out into a cow pasture and 'taught them civility'. All of them behaved much better then, and accepted the men Mirtai found them. It was an amusing few days for anyone not directly involved in the conflict.

Then came the actual wedding, which was quite moving, though very alien to the three girls. Absently all three wondered whether that was just a Peloi wedding or like the ones they would have, since Aphrael was so intent on it.

XXX

It wasn't until several weeks after the wedding that the girls made the next stint of their journey, on to Chyrellos, the religious city at the centre of the Elene world, literally and religiously speaking.

It had been held off for that time because Kring had formally taken the girls into his personal protection until they were turned over to Sparhawk's protection and he was not a fool enough to send them with only his clansmen. Three young girls would be too much temptation for many of them.

When they neared the city, they were surprised at the fact there were a small group of the Archprelate's guard waiting for them. It was lead by a man with fiery-red hair, who Mirtai and Kring remembered from the siege of Chyrellos years before. He greeted them formally before getting to the point.

"The Archprelate has been informed of the arrival of three young ladies that are to be handed over to Prince Sparhawk, preceptor of the Pandion Order. The Prince and his wife, amongst others, is in Chyrellos itself, having come to the city and so the young ladies in question are to be brought to the Basilica." He announced formally, obviously having been given the order to repeat those words. His expression did not change throughout the speech.

Peremptorily, Mirtai guided her horse forward and lead the girls with her. Though none had known how to ride a horse when they arrived, all of them learnt in their wait in Pelosia and guided the beasts forward. Kring gave a few orders to the clansmen accompanying them to set up camp and followed the women into the holy city.

Once again, the girls surprised their escorts by being totally unimpressed with the new city. Colonel Delada looked slightly surprised as well and asked them about it.

"You have been to Chyrellos before then?" he said curiously.

"No, but if you saw the ones we have lived in, particularly London, you would understand why we aren't all that impressed. I've seen many impressive cities over the years and you start to get immune to them, especially ones like this, which only exist in our history," Anna replied. She got a sharp look from the man, who probably didn't know of her origins, she realised belatedly and vowed to keep her mouth shut until a later date.

Once they had reached the Basilica, a scribe, or whatever he was, led them up to a private sitting-room for the Archprelate. Inside was a gaunt looking man in white robes, looking much like the Pope, three women in medieval gowns and several other men, some in doublet and hose, two dressed in the robes of an ecclesiast. There was also a little girl of around seven-years-old, perched on the lap of a radiant, blonde woman in a blue dress. Their guide introduced them.

The man who looked like the Pope was introduced as Sarathi, the fatter of the other ecclesiasts was Patriarch Emban, and the other was Patriarch Ortzel. The blonde woman with the child was Queen Ehlana and her child was Princess Danae. The other two women were Baroness Melidere and Lady Alean, their husbands were Sparhawk, Milord Stragen and Sir Kalten. Also there was Sir Berit and Patriarch Bergsten, who was most definitely not dressed as the ecclesiast he was supposed to be.

Once the introductions were done, Ehlana suggested that they sat down and explained the full story as the missive they had received from Sephrenia had been a bit unclear and not all that believable. With looks between them, Anna started the story, with the others adding in bits she forgot. At the end, everyone in the room was staring at them in pure undiluted shock. Sparhawk was also looking rather resigned and kept looking at his daughter with an almost reproachful look. Ehlana got over her surprise first.

"So, the child goddess took you three from your world and dropped you in this world on the route between Atan and Sarsos so you could be picked up and then brought here because there is something Aphrael is not letting on that she wants you three to do in the Elene kingdoms?" Anna stared into the air for a moment before nodding, sardonic expression back on her face. Once they had processed that, more questions came. Ortzel was the first to get in the next question.

"What is religion like in your world? What about your god, how do you worship him?" Once again, Anna got to answer, even though Fran was technically the expert.

"My one is called Christianity; there are actually six main ones, Christianity being the largest, not even including the heretical sects that are about." Anna smiled slightly, thinking how all of the sects on question would probably be offended by being described as heretical. "Because humans are naturally argumentative, pretty much every religion subdivides downwards. In Christianity you have Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant as the main groups. Protestants are a bit different from the other two because it simply means the ones who don't agree with the other two and that gets complicated. As far as I can work out, from what little I've learnt since being here, Christianity and the Elene religion are very similar with one god and a rigid structure of governance, particularly the Catholic Church is similar, though there are definite differences too." Ortzel looked all for pressing the subject, but Dolmant (Sarathi for those who haven't read the books) changed the subject, thinking that a point for later discussion.

Once the three girls had been thoroughly quizzed, Ehlana noticed their flagging from tiredness and called an end to the meeting, sending the girls off to bathe, something none of them objected to at all.

At dinner, the inquisition started again before Fran looked up with a distinctly miffed expression.

"Do you mind? You apparently have the rest of your, or our, lives to ask us about where we come from. Can we at least eat dinner in peace?" Both her friends looked down at their plates, not saying anything, but agreeing silently. Eventually Emban spoke up,

"Sorry, it's just that we are really very curious about this, we've never had the opportunity to speak to people from another world." Sophie, by far the quietest of the group, looked up and smiled.

"We get that, it's just we'd rather not be on the receiving end of the Spanish Inquisition." That comment got several confused looks from the other people in the room. "Sorry, local phrase, I mean an interrogation. Explaining the background of it would take ages."

"And a fair amount of church bashing as well..." Anna muttered. That comment got several raised eyebrows. "The Inquisition was one of the nastier things done in the name of religion and has become a by-word for relentless interrogation due to some of their methods." Bergsten smiled ruefully.

"There have been similar chapters on the history of this church; I think I understand what sort of thing you mean." There were several wry laughs; apparently everyone knew what he was talking about it.

After that, the conversation changed to the girls asking questions about the world they found themselves in.


	4. Chapter 4

AN: Quick heads up to my new favourite and very helpful reviewer, Slytherinsal. She be a very nice person who gave me lots of very helpful information on the subject of medieval textiles as well as helpful books on the subject, all of which can be found at my uni library. She is also amazing because she has a son at my uni, doing my favourite subject (classics) and he is also a david eddings fan, therefore he must also be an amazing person. And all amazing people have amazing parents (as my mother tells me at every oportunity).

Aphrael Strikes Again 4

For the next several days, the three girls stayed mostly inconspicuous, studying the world they had entered under whichever of the people, who knew their origins, were free at the time. Between the groups, they began picking up much of the knowledge that they needed.

While there, they also were provided with more clothing, this time things appropriate to ladies of an Elene Court, something particularly the elder two girls were very happy about. Sophie and Fran were most happy about being able to get purple dresses, that being both girls' favourite colour.

Over that time, Ortzel managed to get them alone to pick their brains about their religion, and was pleasantly surprised it seemed. What was not such a pleasant surprise for the churchman was when he discovered that all three of them always felt the urge to ask 'why' to just about everything. Even Anna, the only one who was actually religious, insisted on asking the reasons for everything, making him think about things he'd never questioned before. He found the experience quiet unsettling, and the small grins and knowing looks all three girls wore implied that that had been the purpose of the exercise. One day, Dolmant took the time at dinner to ask why. As always, Anna was the one to answer,

"We grew up in an age of scepticism. We all learnt to ask about everything, to keep an open mind about subjects and not to take anything for granted. Where we grew up, the sciences were finding new things every day and new explanation were always being found for things, from how the universe was created to why certain chemicals do what they do when they mix. If you look hard enough, there is almost always an explanation for something. All three of us got a good education and had gotten our way to University, where independent thinking was a must. Sophie's course less so than Fran or mine's, but still you had to be able to think through the evidence and come up with a supported conclusion. All three of us were encouraged to have inquiring minds and we all like making people think about things. It makes life more interesting." Dolmant seemed quite impressed until he noticed Sophie with a hand over her mouth, clearly trying not to laugh. He raised an enquiring eyebrow at her.

"Oh, nothing, Anna talking about why just reminded me of something, never mind."

"If it's so funny, I'm sure we all want to know." Anna was grinning too now, probably having worked out what was so funny. She looked at her petite friend with a raised eyebrow.

"Horrible Histories?" The two word question elicited frowns from all but Fran and Sophie. The latter of the two nodded and Anna turned back to the confused ones and explained,

"Horrible Histories are a series of books designed to make history interesting for children of around eight till elven or twelve-years-of-age. The introduction of one of them had a little cartoon called 'how to make your teacher cry' and has this guy just asking 'why' to everything his teacher says until she bursts into tears on his shoulder. You really have to see the actual cartoon to get what is funny." There were several nods, those present were now used to the references they would not entirely get from the girls.

XXX

After a few more days, the Knights of the other Orders turned up, for no entirely explicable reason, though Sparhawk and the girls suspected Aphrael of deliberately bringing them together for her own purposes. The meeting of the girls and their Knights turned out to be an amusing one...

All three girls were sitting slightly to the side of the main group, having not really understood much of the conversation, and not feeling part of the friendly reunion.

A page knocked and entered before he announced the arrival of the Champions of the other Orders, including the interim Preceptor of the Cyrinic Order. All three were greeted warmly by their friends, not noticing the three girls sitting slightly apart from the rest of the group, on the other side.

At the entrance of the three Knights, the three girls sitting in the corner began sizing them up. Sophie raised a single eyebrow and pursed her lips as she watched the muscular Sir Tynian move across and greet the Queen of Elenia formally with perfect manners. Anna grinned slightly at her and Fran, who was in the middle of the group, and then nodded at Sir Bevier with a mischievous look that bordered on the suggestive. Fran then grinned at them and pointed at the huge blonde, braided Knight that had yet to be claimed.

She then began to speak in what was supposed to be a whisper. It came out as a stage whisper,

"Well, if that the way you feel, I want the one with the _sexy body_!" The last two words were rather loudly said and, as all three girls collapsed in badly suppressed giggles, the entire group turned round to look at them.

Anna bit her hand in an attempt to stop laughing as tears streamed down her face. Both Sophie and Fran were staring at Anna as well as laughing hysterically. Fran, between snorted laughter, apparently felt the urge to respond to her friend's expression, obviously failing to notice her increased audience.

"What? I need one with long enough hair to hold onto!" The other two lost what little composure they may have regained in the few intervening seconds after the first comment.

Eventually, the shocked Lords and Ladies managed to respond. Ulath, who had clearly worked out what she was talking about, was grinning suggestively and assessing Fran's appearance. Danae was staring at the ceiling with a look that said far too much for a girl who was supposedly only seven-years-old. Sparhawk looked mildly amused while Bevier seemed utterly shocked – despite plenty of exposure to the real world by now. Melidere was the one who actually spoke first,

"You know, you're not supposed to tell them until the last minute. If you give them warnings, they might try and run." All three girls descended into fits of laughter again, while Ortzel looked very shocked and Bevier looked on the verge of apoplexy. Fran then noticed that Ulath seemed to be looking at her body rather than her face. She suddenly blushed a little, though why was anybody's guess, and looked to the taller of her friends and actually succeeded at whispering this time – just.

"Is he staring at my...?" Her eyes went wide as she blushed even deeper.

Anna snorted slightly and collapsed onto her highly embarrassed friend's shoulder at that latest comment, shaking uncontrollably with laughter.

"Yes, dear, he is staring at your attributes. He seemed a little taken with your double D's or whatever amazing succession of letters they may be." She got an elbow in the stomach for that and promptly burst into another round of laughter.

Sir Tynian raised an eyebrow at the three young women sitting there and decided to speak,

"May I suggest being introduced to these three young ladies? Before they embarrass themselves further." All three bit their lips and stared at the ceiling, desperately trying not to laugh again, fearing another fit of giggles. Ehlana smiled a slightly forced smile at the Knight.

"The vocal young lady is Francesca, her dark-haired friend is Anna and the blonde is Sophie. I think you may need to sit down for the explanation of their presence, and their peculiarities."

More than one expression suggested that the term 'peculiarities' was one of the bigger understatements ever made.


	5. Chapter 5

Hi again, here be the next one. *Waves* If you'll excuse me, i'm gonna go back to talking to my Beta and writing chapter 13. Yes i do have about 7 or eight done in advance. This is so, if i get writers block or loads of work then i can keep posting regularly until i have time to write again, hense the fact that my reviewers wonderful will-be-used ideas do not turn up till chapter 12, the first one i wrote after getting the reviews in question.

Your loving author, GaiaCaecilia

Aphrael Strikes again, Chapter 5

All three Knights sat staring at the three girls and their friends in utter shock. They slowly recovered from the shock in three different ways. Ulath seemed speculative, though still fixated on the most buxom of the three girl's 'attributes'. He seemed quite taken with her appearance. Tynian looked more contemplative and less fixated on the young women, unless you counted interest in their arrival. Bevier seemed slightly disturbed by it all. Anna decided to take that in hand straight away.

She rose from her chair elegantly and went over to the olive-skinned Arcian and sunk to her knees on the floor beside the man, placing her hands on his lap and took his hands in hers. He looked at her with surprise, especially at the submissive pose she had taken. She smiled up at him and gently kissed his palms in a way reminiscent of the Styrics.

"Are we actually any different, Bevier? Believe me, we are much more scared than you. We are the ones brought from our own world because a spoiled goddess had an idea about something. We are human as you and probably far more disturbed than you." He took his hands from hers and placed a hand on her cheek and stroked it gently.

"I know you are human as much as I, it is just that I am rather disturbed by this. I have always known Aphrael to be wilful, but never to have gone as far as bringing three people from another world permanently. It disturbs me slightly, to say the least. I did not mean to cause offence." Anna smiled up at him warmly and laid her head on his lap, to his surprise. Fran smiled at the shocked Knight.

"That's Anna's not so subtle way of telling you she wants you to play with her hair. I've frequently seen her sitting in that same position with my mother fiddling with her hair. If you play with it for long enough, she starts to purr. I think Anna is very nearly as tactile as a cat, but with a better temperament." Bevier smiled and laughed, slightly unsure, particularly of Fran. He did start playing with Anna's hair however, and she let out a contented sigh. Apparently, she was starting her campaign early.

By the time they were called into dinner, virtually everyone had forgotten where Anna was, for she had fallen into a contented silence as Bevier stroked her hair. It was only when they rose to enter the dining room that they remembered where she had been sitting and mostly because of the wince and quietly muttered 'ouch' as she stood up. She received several looks of concern though Fran just applied a two word question.

"Your back?" Anna shook her head.

"No, knees this time. Arthritis sucks. And my head went a little." Both her friends nodded while the others in the room frowned at them in confusion. Sophie, unusually since she was by far the quietest, answered them,

"Anna has a range of minor physical illnesses. She inherited arthritic knees, exacerbated by flat footedness, from her mother as well as something called Syncope, which basically translates as low blood pressure that doesn't right itself when a person stands up causing both dizziness and migraines. She also did her back in when she was at school and since, when your back gets injured, it stays injured, she often has problems with that too. She also has minor Asthma, which is a breathing problem which is thankfully improved by her being quite fit." There were several raised eyebrows around the group.

"You're quite the sickly one, aren't you?" Bergsten asked eventually.

"I'd rather not be, I generally ignore those little ailments and take painkillers or something of that general variety when it gets bad. Most of it is less painful because I go out of my way to stay physically fit, though I could probably do with remembering to do my exercises more often as the main problem with my back is now muscular. I'll live, either way." She seemed to shrug off the illnesses like they were mothering. That surprised more than one person there, they were all use to women talking up ailments to get attention, Anna's apparent dismissal was highly unusual, if not unwelcome.

XXX

Over the next few days, Fran seemed to take on much of the role of the trio's spokeswoman, largely because Anna seemed to spend large amounts of her time talking with the Cyrinic Knight, who seemed fascinated with her. Equally, she seemed very interested in him and enjoyed passing on information to the young man. One day, he came into the midday meal with a look of wonder on his face, which was immediately questioned. His response was enthusiastic.

"Did you know, it is possible to make people immune to an illness, that, if you know how, you can do something that eradicates disease?" The Natives, as the trio of girls called them, stared at him in disbelief. Sophie, however, responded to the pronouncement.

"I guess Anna was telling you about vaccinations." She smiled the wry, quiet smile she was so good at and carried on, "Shortly before she came here, she was winging about her sore arm after receiving the final part of her HVP vaccine, one that lessens the chance of her getting a specifically female illness. I'm afraid I would prefer a sore arm to the disease any day."

"So would I, that's why I got the jab, especially as I could get it free, it's just that I made my arm really sore for a few days. I could barely carry my bag on that shoulder, which isn't really very good as I carry it on the other shoulder too often anyway." No-one even bothered asking about the comment, they all realised that they would never got anything done if they asked about every comment they didn't entirely understand. Instead they went on to ask about these 'vaccines'.

Once Anna had explained the procedure and how it worked to them, they all sat staring at her wide-eyed. They were used to world differences, but never before had they come across such an obviously useful advancement. They didn't really understand computers and such like, but this made perfect sense to them. Eventually, Dolmant was able to come up with a good answer.

"Would it be possible to arrange such a thing here? Being able to irradiate diseases would be most advantageous." His voice was quiet, in some way more hit by this advancement than others the girls had talked about. It was probably because it was one where they could see the immediate use, and just how useful it would be. Anna sighed deeply and looked down at the ground from her by now customary place sitting beside Bevier. It had become so customary her to sit beside Bevier with her head resting on his lap as he stroked her hair that they had got a special cushion for her to sit on to make it a more comfortable place to sit.

"I could do the smallpox one, it is not too difficult as long as I could get hold of milkmaids with cowpox but the others, well, you don't have the infrastructure and such like and none of us have the knowledge. Even the smallpox one would be very crude, but I at least know how Jenner did it."

Everyone in the room was contemplatively silent, like for the first time they had realised just _how_ different their worlds were, and how hard it would be for the girls to change over. This world must be their idea of ultra-primitive. It was a sobering realisation for them, who had thought themselves quite advanced.

XXX

Bevier followed the sound of the voice, up to the little cupola where one could see the entire city. He tried hard not to make any noise as he ascended the ancient stairs, knowing they creaked loudly, but not wanting to disturb the voice. She, whoever she was, was singing an unfamiliar song with both power and emotion that almost made his heart want to break. He rarely heard a hymn, for that was what it was he realised, sung with that level of emotion. The singer clearly felt what she was singing. It was a strange hymn; the verse seemed to be god talking and the chorus, a person answering him. It was very powerful however. (AN: I the lord of Sea and Sky, one of my personal favourite hymns, it always makes me cry).

Once he had reached the top, amazingly enough without having apparently disturbed the singer, he looked around to see who it was. To his amazement, he saw Anna standing there in a dark blue dress of velvet, hair loose down her back. She stood there, arms wrapped round herself as she sang. By now, she was on another hymn. This time it seemed to be both a hymn and about dance, what was going on seemed a little confusing to him though it clearly meant much to Anna. (AN: Lord of the Dance, another personal favourite, this time of both mine and Rumrum/Sophie's)

Once she had finished, she turned round to look at Bevier with a wan smile and he saw two trails of tears down her face as she hugged herself. She did not show any surprise at his presence however, she'd probably heard him coming up the stairs and just ignored him.

Almost hesitantly, he walked over to her and brushed away the tears from her face.

"Why do you cry?" he asked softly. Anna leant into his hand slightly and her smile broadened slightly.

"Because music is very important to me and those hymns, particularly the first one always makes me emotional. The words are ones I always find very poignant." Bevier pulled her into a tight hug, hearing the catch in her voice and she willingly buried her head in his shoulder. "I came up here for some private time, something I sorely need right now, and well, while I was looking out over the city I sort of felt like singing and well, hymns seemed appropriate all things considered," she almost whispered.

Hesitantly, Bevier leant down and kissed her forehead as he held her close. His heart tightened as he felt an odd protectiveness. Though he often was protective of people, especially women, that was his duty, as any true gentleman would protect a woman. This was somehow personal and he didn't know why. He also had an urge to kiss away her tears and make her happy again with his actions and _that_ scared him. He had to admit that he had had lustful thoughts about women, this was somehow different. He wanted Anna, but not simply because of the desire Sparhawk assured him was natural in young men.

As he held her to him comfortingly to him, he realised that he was slightly scared by the strange, unfamiliar emotions he felt for the young girl in his arms. Not only did he have strange emotions, but he didn't either understand them or know how to deal with them. Almost absently, he leant down and kissed her forehead gently, tightening his grasp round her. He, for the life of him, couldn't work out why he felt good when Anna curled deeper into his chest with a sigh of satisfaction.

Why on earth should it feel good that she clearly liked being in his arms?


	6. Chapter 6

Aphrael Strikes Again 6

While Anna and Bevier had been preoccupied, others as well were dealing with their own campaigns, just in slightly different ways. Actually, Fran hadn't exactly been campaigning, but her behaviour had had roughly the same effect. After her initial embarrassment, she had been avoiding Ulath outside the times when she couldn't help seeing him, which was at meals. During meals, she proved excellent at pretending it wasn't that she was avoiding him, that it was just he never happened across her, but both friends knew better.

Ulath, though totally fixated by her physical appearance at first, was now trying very hard just to talk to her. He'd originally wanted to talk to her for the possibility of seduction, but now he just wanted to _talk_ to her at all. On the other side, Sophie and Tynian, who had formed a close friendship quite quickly, were taking bets on the outcome.

Meanwhile, Danae was sitting on the sidelines, glaring at the girls, wondering what they were playing at. Alright, Anna and Bevier seemed to be co-operating, but Sophie and Tynian seemed more interested in being friends than being _married_, and Ulath and Fran weren't even talking yet. Sparhawk was wondering whether to tell his daughter, who had eventually explained under parental pressure, that all three were doing just fine. Even if the petulant little goddess couldn't see it, he could.

XXX

Fran browsed the books in a far corner of Dolmant's private library in the Basilica, sure that, apart from being interesting, the big blonde Knight she was _not_ avoiding (really) would not find her there. Unfortunately for her, she was wrong on that point, especially as the Thalesian Knight was, by now, rather concertedly searching for her.

Her breath caught in her throat as large arms wrapped round her and long hair tickled her neck as _he_ leant down to whisper in her ear. It was only at that point she realised just how much taller than her Ulath was, not that she minded that.

"So, I have finally found you, my elusive and vocal lady," he commented quietly. Fran opted to do nothing in light of the fact that there was nothing she could do and instead stood there, waiting for his next comment. She drew in a little breath as, instead of a comment, he kissed her neck then blew slightly in her ear. There was a slight 'oof' as Fran's elbow rammed into his stomach. It also had the effect of loosening his hold enough for Fran to release herself and try to escape. Ulath pursued his quarry and soon had her pinned to the bookshelf against the back wall and had kissed her rather more passionately. As he was getting into the forceful kiss, there was a loud, significant cough behind him. He pulled back as the Fran let out a relieved sigh and began to breathe again. Behind them was the elderly monk who cared for the library, looking highly disapproving, mostly at Ulath.

Ulath blushed and took Fran's hand, pulling her out of the library and to another, more private, area for them to carry on their 'conversation'...

XXX

"Oh come on, Fran, I know you enjoyed it really. Just in case you forgot, I do have the unfortunate problem called knowing your preferences in the bedroom. I have heard you and Danni talking behind my head about _exactly_ what your boyfriends do, and anyway, you _did_ break those plastic handcuffs I gave you after I got them in that pass-the-parcel."

Fran blushed deeper as Anna spoke, knowing that her best friend had a point. Even if she hadn't exactly wanted Ulath's attention, she did have a taste for 'forceful' men, as her friend very well knew. She was beginning to wish she hadn't discussed her bedroom activities quite so openly round Anna now. She knew that she would be on the receiving end of many digs. Sophie, who had yet to respond to Fran passing on the gossip about her and Ulath's afternoon encounter, was smiling at the youngest of the girls mischievously. Fran eyed her suspiciously, knowing better than to trust that expression.

"Oh nothing, I was just wondering when the wedding would be," Sophie stated quietly, only to watch Fran go into an extended coughing fit. Anna giggled, know the comment had been made purely for that reaction. The three girls were sitting in Sophie's sitting room talking privately, and gossiping about their respective men.

Anna then took on an almost contemplative look and then turned back to the younger of her friends with a frown.

"I've got Bevier mostly trained. Does the expert have any ideas on how I can get him to actually kiss me? I'm not sure he's got that far yet, it's getting mildly frustrating." Fran laughed, glad to have a change in conversation subject, even though she absently stroked the flesh where Ulath had kissed.

XXX

After the Incident in the Library, as the girls called it, Fran began to avoid Ulath even at meals, sitting as far away from him as possible, obviously frustrating the Knight. As the girls found out one morning, he had obviously had enough with the youngest of their trio...

... Fran woke to the feeling of a hand caressing her face and absently muttered, clearly not realising what was going on, or who was next to her.

"Anna, stop being obnoxious. It's way too early." Ulath laughed quietly, apparently her friend had a thing with waking her up early from her immediate assumption that Anna was the person waking her up. He leant down and kissed her gently. Soon she would discover that her arms had been tied in order to prevent her running off this time. He was fed up of her running off. Why were women so confusing?

Normally, he wouldn't mind a woman turning him down, but to first show attraction, and as obviously as she had, and then to ignore his existence completely irritated him. There was also the fact he found _her_ highly attractive, if she'd stay still long enough for him to seduce her. He looked guiltily at the bind on her wrist, knowing he would not seduce her now, just get her to talk to him again. There were many things he would do, but tie a woman up in her own bed and then force her was _not_ one of them. As she became more aware of her surroundings, he place a hand over her mouth gently to stop her from screaming when she realised it wasn't Anna waking her.

To his utter surprise, instead of screaming or any of the expected reactions, she bit his hand. Hard.

Ulath yelped in surprise and pain, Fran apparently had very sharp teeth. There was a satisfied look on her face as he first waved his hand about a little, and then examined it for damage. After a few seconds of watching him, Fran attempted sitting up and then discovered the bond round her wrists and glared at him.

"The thing about plastic hand cuffs is that they do _break_," she muttered under her breath. Ulath raised a curious eyebrow at her, wondering what she was talking about. Even in the gloom, Ulath could see her suddenly go very red. He smiled slightly as she again began muttering. "Why the hell do I always have to say embarrassing things round him?"

"Is that why you were avoiding me? Because you're embarrassed about the first words I heard out of your mouth?" The look of annoyed rebellion returned to her eyes as she glared up at him.

"Well, no _shit_,Sherlock! You don't say!" Fran muttered tartly. She also rolled her eyes. Ulath sighed, wondering what to say. He was generally the laconic one, who seemed almost to ration words. Working out how to say what was needed, when it was necessary to speak a lot, was hard.

"I understand you are highly embarrassed about that encounter and my reaction was hardly helpful, even if I do find you really attractive, but can you please at least talk to me? If I at least promise to be as unembarrassing as possible and not make any passes at you or anything..." he trailed off, not entirely sure what to say. This was not his strong point, this talking to a woman he was attracted to, did as a matter of fact want and was apparently as attracted to him but for some reason of female mentality, he couldn't have. Fran was gaping at him slightly.

"_Pardon?_ You mean to first corner me in the library and then _tie me to my BED_ because I'm not talking to you? Are you nuts? I think Aphrael can go stuff her ideas down a bloody bog!" Ulath was silent for a few seconds.

"What? What has Aphrael got to do with anything?" he went from slightly shocked to suspicious at the mention of the child goddess.

"Oops, I wasn't supposed to mention that. Erm, Aphrael basically brought us here so she could get you, Tynian and Bevier hitched, erm." Ulath sat back and closed his eyes. He should have guessed. Suddenly, he got a highly mischievous idea, one that he hoped Fran, with what he knew of her apparently warped sense of humour, would agree to.

"How do you fancy doing something that will shock most of the Elenes around us and annoy Aphrael seriously?" Fran's grin was a prize winner.

"Now that sounds like my kind of proposition. How?" Ulath kissed her softly for a moment before replying.

"Come live with me."


	7. Chapter 7

Aphrael Strikes again 7

The next morning, everyone was more than slightly surprised to see Fran and Ulath arrive hand-in-hand, smiling mischievously. They would not, however, tell anyone why. As always, Sophie and Tynian went off somewhere private and took bets on what had happened.

"He's got her to marry him and doesn't want to tell until he's got the rings." Was Tynian's first bet. Sophie shook her head, knowing her friend rather better.

"More likely is that the two of them went off somewhere private and had a hot and steamy night and now really want to get back into bed together." Tynian coughed slightly at the girl's bluntness, but had to concede. It was definitely in Ulath's character, and he guessed that Sophie thought it was in her friend's character.

"True, I suppose. Though it could be something not sexual at all..."

"Yeah right, with those two?" Sophie raised a cynical eyebrow. "Do be serious." Tynian grinned and was about to answer when one of the ubiquitous monks that haunted the Basilica came running up to them, out of breath. Once he had got his breath back enough to speak, he began talking as rapidly as he could manage.

"Sir Tynian, some of your brother Knights have arrived looking for you, they have come with a young lady from Acie. They are downstairs, in Sarathi's sitting-room, waiting for you." Tynian frowned, and after a moment of hesitation, thanked the monk and offered his arm to Sophie, who duly took it.

When they arrived in the sitting-room, there were no Alcione Knights, but there was a young lady of around fifteen years in travelling clothes, with arms crossed and a tightness to her jaw.

"Alcinaera! What are you doing here?" Tynian said as the girl rose to greet him. Everyone looked slightly surprised when he immediately recognised the girl.

"Running, Uncle. You remember my mother's darling brother? Or the fact that father died fighting Klael? Well, _dear_ Uncle Rathias decided that, since my guardian has gone, he would be the next-in-line for that role, mostly because he can sell me to the highest bidder. He would be doing the same to mother, but as long as she remains in mourning, she can escape. Yours, and father's brother Knights decided to be all helpful and help me get to you, who _should _be my guardian now, so I wasn't forced to marry whoever. They are protecting mother from him as well." There was no missing the sarcasm and contempt that filled her voice.

Tynian's face had become outraged. He moved over to his niece and pulled her into his arms protectively. She clung to him and buried her head in his shoulder, obviously more upset than she was going to let on. After a minute or two, Tynian sat down and pulled his niece down beside him, still holding her in his arms protectively. He looked up at the mixed outraged and curious faces of his friends and sighed before explaining.

"My younger brother, Ryellon, also joined the Alcione Knights and was one of the Knights who died fighting Klael. He also wasn't the most popular family member because Amaeria was not from a titled family, but from one with 'new money'. The parents gave their sons too much of what they didn't have and too little of what they did have and they, including Rathias, have turned out to be a bunch of rats. Amaeria was brought up to be a proper wife, however, and was a rose among thorns in that group. Rathias is money-obsessed and is obviously using my brother's death to get some more from his sister and niece. My brother Knights would not let him do that to the family of one of their brother Knights, however, so obviously brought Alcinaera to me. On that subject, Alcinaera, why did they only bring you and how are they looking after your mother?" Tynian frowned at his niece, who drew in a breath before answering, her gaze having gone from angry to sad.

"She has not been very well since father died, they are looking after her in the Chapter House because they can protect her there, our trip here was a little hurried to make sure Rathias couldn't catch us and get in our way, not that he'd have been able to get through the Alcione Knights, but they still feared the danger they could put us in. They told him that they were caring for their brother Knight's wife while she was in mourning and also helping her look for a convent to join. I think that last part annoyed Rathias." Her lips quirked in slight amusement at anything that annoyed her clearly unpleasant uncle.

Tynian sighed softly as his face became contemplative. No-one commented, knowing that it was better to leave the Knight to his thoughts. Eventually he looked up.

"I think I am going to have to return to Deira and Acie to retrieve my sister-in-law and sort out this problem. There is one slight problem though..." He sighed again as everyone looked questioningly at him. "Alcinaera needs a chaperone, coming here without one was improper enough but, now there is time to arrange one, I can't leave her without one." There were several moments of silence as people considered it. He looked up, clearly not sure what to do when something caught his eye. Sophie had raised her hand diffidently and, at his prompting, spoke,

"If you want, I could be a chaperone, erm..." Anna had to suppress a laugh at the way his face lit up at the suggestion. Fran was having a similar reaction, also having spotted that. Danae simply looked quite satisfied. Alcinaera raised an eyebrow and looked to her uncle questioningly.

"Oh, sorry, Alcinaera, meet Sophie; Sophie, as you've probably guessed, my niece, Alcinaera." Sophie smiled at the girl and absently noted the girl was really rather pretty, with dark hair and pale skin and an oval face. Once she had reached her full growth, she would be a striking beauty, and a tall one. Sophie did no doubt the idea that Rathias would have had no problem finding some of the less principled men in the world to buy her for the right price, especially as she was the daughter of a titled family as well.

Once it was agreed that Sophie would accompany them as chaperone, Stragen leant forward with a suggestion for them.

"What would you say to me contacting Meland in Acie to arrange a few misfortunes for this unpleasant uncle? I know you feel that you and your Alcione friends would like to deal some justice upon them, but there are a few things I could arrange to make his life even life even less pleasant..." He left the sentence hanging with a vaguely wicked grin. Alcinaera's face was not the one of proper horror that it should have been, instead it was distinctly gleeful at the idea.

Tynian, however seemed to hesitate for a moment before he also wore that expression, and suddenly, you could tell the pair were related. It was odd how similar the two expressions were. Stragen just smiled softly.

"I'll take that as a 'yes' then, shall I?"

XXX

Two days later, the trio, accompanied by the Knights that had escorted Alcinaera to Chyrellos, left again for Deira and Acie, so Tynian could rescue his sister-in-law and teach her brother some manners, amongst other things.

Once she had gone, Anna and Fran retired to the cupola, having found it a good place to talk privately.

"... Have you any idea why Princess Danae looked so satisfied at Sophie going off with Tynian? It strikes me as a little strange," Fran asked. Anna grinned slightly, looking out over the city.

"Because Danae is another incarnation of Aphrael, Fran, and so she obviously has an interest in seeing us doing what she wants us to. Hence, being happy at Sophie going off with Tyinian. In a few years, though, we might have to worry about Alcinaera. Knowing Aphrael, she might try to set her up. Aphrael is like that." Fran laughed. They then both jumped high in the air as someone spoke behind them.

"One wonders how you know that? My daughter's true identity is not generally known." They turned round to see Sparhawk standing there with Danae balanced on his hip. She had obviously kept them from noticing her and her father's arrival. Anna coloured slightly as she got over her shock and tried to think of an answer.

"Erm, well, where I come from there is this author, or was, he died a bit over a year ago, who wrote lots of good books that I like, neither Fran nor Sophie has read them, and there were two trilogies called the Elenium and the Tamuli. The Elenium basically goes from your return from Rendor to that bit where Aphrael takes you to that special house and serves you food, and then brings spring back after her family have been sulking. The Tamuli goes from when you rode into Cimmura, in the rain _again_, after Dolmant send you to Lamorkand to find out about Drichtnath to the point just before you sail home from Tamuli with Sorgi. I have read those books quite a lot and know them very well, so obviously know about Aphrael's identities as Flute and Danae, as well as most of the major events that happened in those time periods... erm..." Anna bit her lip, and looked up at them through her eyelashes. All three of the others were staring at her. Eventually Fran spoke,

"You've _known_ something about this place all this time and all sorts of interesting things that you probably shouldn't have and you _never_ told me or Sophie?" Anna shrugged and quirked her lips slightly before answering her friend.

"I'm a politician, Fran, you know that no politician give away any information unless with very good reason. Knowledge is power and power works best if it is used when needed. I never tell people what I know unless I have a good reason to do so, you know that." Fran rolled her eyes, she did indeed know that, it was one of Anna's more irritating habits. Unfortunately, she also had more than once proved the point.

Danae and Sparhawk were watching the two girls with inscrutable expressions during the little conversation. Once the girls had fallen silent, they gave each other a long look. Sparhawk sighed deeply.

"This changes things a bit."


	8. Chapter 8

Ooo, exams start on thursday - Wish me luck! (Don't worry about this affecting me posting, i have plenty of chapters ready in advance and the exams only last just over a week, after which i shall be able to get back to writing and will soon have finished this story so post my speed up.)

Anyway, on with the story...

Aphrael Strikes again 8

Both Fran and Anna were slightly cautious round Sparhawk and Danae after that particular conversation and they were duly watched carefully by the pair, both slightly worried by just how much Anna could potentially know and neither wanted her to make any untimely slips.

To keep herself distracted from the scrutiny, Anna threw herself into turning up the gush level with Bevier, as Fran put it, more than once. Sophie was definitely the romantic part of the trio. Bevier didn't seems to be getting the hint, however, even though he seemed to be falling in with Anna's tactile-ness and almost seemed to miss it when he didn't have enough physical contact with the girl. He seemed to have developed a need to either have his arms around Anna, or to be stroking her hair, or just something like that.

XXX

Fran walked along the corridor the balcony at the end, where the tall, dark haired Knight leaning over the balcony contemplatively. He only cursorily looked up at her as she leant against the balcony next to him, at a suitably proper distance by local customs. After a few moments of silence, she spoke up,

"Where's Anna; you two generally seem surgically attached?" she asked curiously.

"I needed to think and Anna's been stolen by Princess Danae for something or other so..." He trailed off for a moment before speaking again. "I don't understand Anna or this over powering feeling to hold her close. She is so kind and affectionate and I selfishly find myself wanting to keep all those hugs, the right to be the one to stroke her hair, all those things, to myself. How can one girl do all that to me?" Fran was quiet, wondering what to say as they stood there with Bevier staring over the Holy City in tortured thought. Hesitantly, Fran asked another question,

"Do you want to touch her in any way other than embraces and playing with her hair? Erm..." It was quite unlike Fran to be so timid, but she was a little unsure of how to deal with this Knight in a way that wouldn't achieve the opposite to what she wanted to achieve. Bevier's reaction to her question was a stiff back and a deep sign. Eventually he answered her,

"Not in any way that is proper. Even if she would agree to courting me, that is wrong. She is barely more than a child, far too young for me. I don't know how she would do in Arcium. My people are very conservative, but all three of you are so different, so free, I don't think..." Another deep sigh.

"Why don't you take her with you to Arcium when you return home? If you don't want to tell of where she comes from, just get say she is a Lady of the Elenian Court that Ehlana has put in your care. I'm sure the Queen would be happy to arrange that to be true, and then you can see how she does; keep her close and whatever and, well, see how things go." They fell into silence again before Bevier turned, clearly about to make some sort of objection, but Fran would not let him. "Anna is definitely the conservative of the group. I bring out her bad side, but naturally, she is very conservative. I think she would do fine and would hardly object to going with you." By this point, Fran was beginning to sound a little tart, rather annoyed with the thick-headed male besides her.

"Surely she wouldn't want to be separated from her other friend, though?" Fran shrugged.

"We aren't that needy of each other, for her first two years of University, we only saw each other every few months because for the first year I was still at school then working, and anyway, I'm going to Thalesia when Ulath goes back home so she would probably be separated from me anyway. She is far less fond of winter than I am." Bevier looked at her in surprise.

"You are going with Ulath to Thalesia?"

"Are you going to ask Anna to go back to Arcium with you?" Fran asked, slight smile dancing round her mouth as she attempted to side-step a question she didn't want to answer. She hadn't meant to mention that. Bevier did a fairly reasonable fish-impression while he tried to find an answer to that and Fran took the opportunity to leave before any more awkward questions came up.

XXX

A few evenings later, Bevier took Anna up to the cupola to watch the lights of the city at night and to get some privacy together – he had a question to ask.

They stood at the top for a little while before he said anything, Bevier's arm round Anna's waist, until he noticed her shivering and, instinctively, he pulled her into his arms fully. Anna snuggled close to his chest, in a way that conveniently left her neck right in the Knight's line of access. Bevier laid his cheek against hers, trying to resist the temptation the long, slender neck offered. All the same, Anna purred in contentment at the intimacy of the moment. Eventually Bevier spoke,

"Soon, Anna, I shall have to return home. I am needed as interim-preceptor of my Order and there is much more to do there than here..." Anna tilted her head up to look at the man, eyes wide and lower lip caught in a sort of nervous anticipation. Her expression had the desired effect on Bevier. "I was... I was wondering if you would, erm, like to come with me?" The last was said in a rush, like Bevier was nervous. Tempted as Anna was to tease him about his nerves, she resisted. She had more important things to do.

She raised a hand up to his shoulder and moved up, kissing the corner of his mouth, not quite daring to kiss him properly, before moving to his ear to whisper in it.

"I would love to, Sir Knight, and for the world, I would not part with you either." Anna snuggled back against Bevier's chest, not sure if she had gone too far with the Knight. It sometimes seemed as if she was walking on eggshells with him, it was so hard to judge what would be too much with him. Bevier's only response was to tighten his grasp on her, however. Her response had touched him more than either knew.

XXX

Eventually, Ehlana brought up the subject of the Knights' return home. Bevier and Ulath looked at each other, not sure what to say. By now, both knew that the other had to broker taking one of the girls with them, courtesy of Fran. Ulath spoke first.

"Well, I am going soon, but I'm taking Fran with me," he said, not elaborating at all. While everyone was looking between each other, trying to work out what to think, Bevier spoke up, somewhat more hesitantly.

"I have also requested to take Anna along with me. I thought to show her the court of King Dregos and present her to my King." More than one person's eyebrow rose at that and Emban, Arcian himself, was the first to respond,

"The court of Arcium is very conservative, have you thought of how to protect Anna's modesty and reputation, it is not generally considered proper for a lady to travel alone with a man there? We also have to come up with a cover-story. We can hardly say she is an otherworldly being brought here by a Styric goddess. They would have fits!"

"We were hoping Ehlana would make it possible for us to say that Anna is a member of her Court, who had recently joined and was from the country. The country bit would cover her ignorance in many areas and if we said you had placed her under my guardianship, then there should be little problem." Ehlana pursed her lips at them, recognising a foregone decision when she saw one and knowing when not to argue against a flimsy argument.

"Of course, I'll arrange it so it's true for you two. Though I'm not sure whether Anna in the Arcium Court will cause more shock or whether the Arcium Court will shock Anna more," she observed drily. Anna looked at Fran, knowing that her friend would cause the most shock by a _long_ mile.

XXX

Both pairs spent the next several days planning, as well as packing and in Anna's case, learning about things she would need to know in the Arcian Court. To a certain extent, Fran was learning about the Thalesian Court as well, but there was rather less to remember there.

After several days of frantic activity, they sat down as a group again, just to relax a little before the long journeys each had to make. After as small amount of conversation, Anna got a 'thinking' sort of expression, which elicited curious questions. After a small hesitation, she replied,

"Do you think we should write and tell Sophie what we are doing? I know she's presently got entertainment of her own, but I'm sure she would like to be kept in the loop." Everyone agreed to that, all slightly surprised that no-one had thought of it before.

Then, with excellent timing, a page boy came in announcing he had a letter for the Ladies Anna and Francesca. After a quick look at each other, Anna held her hand out for the letter from her place at Bevier's knee where he was once again stroking her hair. Someone passed over a letter-knife and she slit open the seal, skim reading the letter before looking up at the others.

After quickly reading the letter, Anna looked up.

"Sophie thought of writing first," she said with a wicked grin.


	9. Chapter 9

IMPORTANT AUTHORS NOTE - WELL IT IS FOR ANYONE WHO REVIEWS MY STORIES ANYWAY. - FOr some reason the 'reply to review' link in the emails i get sent teling about the reviews is down, and its not just me, my beta/best friend is having the same problem. I'm sorry if i'm not replying to your reviews, i shall attempt to reply via private messages instead. Anyway, in apology for not replying to reviews this week, here is the next chapter a day early.

GaiaCaecilia.

Aphrael Strikes Again 9

_Dear Anna and Fran,_

_I hope you are both well and that _every_thing is going 'smoothly'. Deira, I can assure you, is absolutely gorgeous and the capital, Acie, is _perfect_ for a little classics/history-buff like me. Tynian has promised to take me on a tour of it and the surrounding countryside later, but he's a bit preoccupied sorting out that complete and utter arse Rathias. Honestly, be glad you will never have to meet the guy; the stories Alcinaera regaled me with on the journey here just doesn't bear thinking about._

_Anyway, we're currently installed in the Alcione Chapter House and I can tell you, there is _plenty_ of eye-candy here if you ever get bored where you are. Tynian – typical bloke – didn't seem to like either Alcinaera or I being too 'bothered' (his phrase, not mine) by them, even if they _are_ his brother-Knights, and immediately took us to see Amaeria, Alcinaera's mother. The poor woman is still grieving sorely, as well as being still being in full mourning-dress – it was actually quite awkward initially, so Tynian and I left them together. When I met Amaeria later, she was actually showing annoyance (guess who with) – 'pissed-off' doesn't even begin to cover it._

_In fact, everyone was rather pissed-off; I gather Rathias was annoyed with his niece for running off. I don't blame her, though, apparently, Rathias was trying to marry her off to some obnoxious Lord's son or whatever in order to gain access to valuable ore-reserves, which are on the Lord's land (inheritance of them is what the son gets upon marrying and producing an heir). I think he was also trying to get Amaeria re-married to some other Lord with powerful connections. Money and power – is that all men think about? Actually, it _isn't_, but I'm blabbering now._

_Naturally, Tynian was pissed-off _big-time _with Rathias, as were all the other Alcione Knights because Alcinaera is, by rights, Tynian's Ward, not Rathias' – I think they're also taking their turn at being protective over one of the few single females here. Isn't that sweet?_

_So off they all went, in a huge cavalcade of horses, etc. We girls watched them ride off from my bedroom window, which looks out over the city. I have to tell you that they made a _very_ fine spectacle, especially Tynian, who was riding a little ahead of the others. Apparently, they rode straight to Rathias' house, beat down the door, and rushed into the main hall to find their three targets grouped together in deep conversation. Whether they were discussing how to nab Alcinaera and Amaeria or whatnot, I don't know – I don't think any of our Knights were really in the mood for pleasantries._

_Anyway, what followed was nothing less than carnage (imagine the Agincourt scene at the end of Kenneth Branagh's 'Henry V'). I think it was bad enough them fighting Rathias and his cronies, but then some of Rathias' men turned up and all Hell broke loose. All their screams (yes, screams) and yells echoed horribly in the hall. It wasn't long before the ground was covered in blood and gore, not that I think many noticed as they were all, apparently, in a great, seething mass of arms and bodies. The Alcione Knights soon had to resort to using to using weapons from the walls. I think Tynian was almost cornered at one point, but he obviously managed to fight back. Eventually, the Alcione Knights did manage to pick off (in all senses of the phrase) all their opponents._

_We had to wait quite a while after they came back because (fortunately, I think) they had had the presence of mind to clean up before they come to see us. We were so relieved to see them that we immediately rushed up for hugs. I managed to get to Tynian first; I simply threw my arms round him and went to give him a victory-kiss on the cheek, but it somehow ended up on the lips. Tynian just kept on loosely holding me and it was only after one or two wolf-whistles that it actually dawned on me what we were doing. The Knights were grinning in the way men do and Alcinaera and Amaeria were looking at us in a way that made me blush terribly (probably even more so than I already was), so I tried to avoid their stares by looking down and immediately noticed that Tynian had hurt his hand. The healers said he'd broken it; I was actually rather surprised at Tynian not knowing how to punch someone properly, but he said he wanted to get the first punch in, seeing as Alcinaera and Amaeria were _his_ family and that it had been a heat-of-the-moment thing. I think I might have touched a nerve there. Oh well, I hope it heals soon and I hope _you_ write to me soon with all _your_ news!_

_All my love,_

_Sophie xxx_

Most of the people in the room were gaping at Anna as she read, though Fran had just totally failed to prevent herself from collapsing in fits of hysterical laughter. Anna had only managed to stave off the laughter enough to read. Eventually Ulath managed to comment,

"I wonder if we should tell your friend that Tynian tends to edit stories for dramatic effect." Kalten laughed and elaborated,

"I severely doubt the Alcione Knights were half as hard-pressed as Tynian said they were, though I think they wouldn't bother correcting him. He was probably making it sound more heroic in the hope of getting some more kisses." He grinned salaciously at the two girls, who both laughed, rather more enthusiastically than expected. Anna then looked up with twinkling eyes.

"What are the bets for how long it takes them to announce their engagement?"

"Who's up for recruiting his family to ensure it's soon?" Fran asked before anyone could comment on Anna's statement. Everyone laughed.

As the conversation moved on (slightly), Anna caught a rather self-satisfied expression on the face of a certain young princess...

XXX

Two days later, Fran and Ulath left and then the next day, so did Anna and Bevier. Anna and Bevier's group had conveniently been joined by a few other Cyrinic Knights and a young Styric girl, who had come to Chyrellos as a step on the route to Arcium so she could get Cyrinic protection on her trip. She was aiming to meet their tutor in the Secrets at their Motherhouse. Knowing what little she did about Styrics, Anna was slightly surprised to see such a shy girl as a worshiper of Romalic. The two didn't really seem to suit each other much. The Cyrinic Knights however, were very protective. Anna also suspected a certain amount on conniving on the part of Aphrael. Whatever Bevier had said, it would be _very_ improper for a woman to travel without female companionship, especially in Arcium. A Styric woman was better than no woman at all and Aphrael was not taking any chances with her plans.

XXX

Fran soon discovered that, when she didn't have the Peloi and her friends around to entertain her, she was a useless traveller. On long car journeys (which had covered an awful lot more ground in the same time) she had slept but, on a horse she had to remain awake and with little entertainment other than a lot of fairly tedious scenery and one fairly laconic Knight, she was bored.

Absently, she prayed to the only deity she knew personally to speed the journey up.

It was only after a conversation with Ulath about distance and travel time that, considering the distance, Sophie and Tynian had got to Acie rather quickly, though neither had seemed to notice.

XXX

Unlike Fran and Ulath, Anna and Bevier were in Arcium straight away and Anna had to act like a proper lady. Every night at the inn, she and Keramia, the Styric lady, were placed in the best rooms and were fawned over. The presence of the Cyrinic Knights prevented anyone from commenting on Keramia's race, though she sensibly stayed in her room and had food brought up. Since she did, so did Anna.

Keramia was a quiet person, though Anna talked enough for the two of them, slowly bringing her out. Anna knew how to get quiet people to talk to her and come out of their shells. When she had first met Sophie, she had been very quiet too. Not that you would believe it now, not if you heard all three girls together.

Before going to Larium, they went to Bevier's estate where they stayed a few day to recover. Well, that was what the Knights and Keramia did. Until later notice, this was Anna's home. If Aphrael had her way, it would be her permanent home.

XXX

Upon arrival there, they greeted by the Dowager Viscountess, Bevier's mother, who was one of those ladies that defied the years. Anna had no doubt where Bevier got his best looks from. The Lady Alina was stunning even in her sixties, an old age by Arcian standards. She greeted both women in the party warmly, though Anna noticed a disturbing level of perception in her eyes.

After dinner that night, Alina asked Anna and Keramia to join her in her sitting-room as she prepared for bed. The two girls sat around slightly uncomfortably as maids brushed through their hair, preparing them for bed. Eventually, the old lady spoke up, giving Anna a piercing look.

"Bevier is falling for you, child. He hasn't truly realised it yet. I'm not sure he has worked out that it is normal for young men to find young ladies attractive yet, so he is suppressing his feelings." Anna looked up at Alina through her eyelashes, flush rising up her face. She bit her lip, not entirely sure what to say to the old lady. Alina apparently didn't require an answer. "I do not know what game you are playing at, but I suspect you of encouraging his feelings."

Anna's blush deepened. Alina look at her knowingly and Keramia was looking between the two, clearly unsure.

"I may only be an old lady, but if you break my son's heart, you will find the elder god Azash a baby in comparison."

Anna looked up at Bevier's mother properly for the first time, all traces of flushing gone from her face and a defiant tilt to her chin.

"Hurting Bevier in any way is not in my life plans, Lady, and I most definitely do not intend to break his heart." Anna swallowed, stood, and left for her bedroom. At the door, she hesitated and looked back before swallowing again. You would have had to have had very good ears to hear what Anna said next.

"I'm more worried about him breaking mine..." Anna whispered.

Viscountess Alina did have very good ears.


	10. Chapter 10

AN: I think i have come up with a roundabout solution to replying to reviews. I shall attempt to DM people who review since the 'reply to review' link is *still* down. Sigh. Technology.

Aphrael Strikes Again 10

Sophie stood overlooking the battlements of the Alcione motherhouse in Acie, thinking. Her head whipped round as she heard the distinctive sound of Alcinaera rushing towards her.

"Sophie! Come quickly! Uncle Tynian wishes to talk with you." She was about to get worried when she noticed the girl grinning. Obviously it wasn't something bad. Either way, she followed her down to Preceptor Darellon's study. Inside were Darellon, Tynian and Amaera. The latter two looked slightly flawed, while Darellon was grinning. Sophie absently noticed that the cheerful expression added a lot to his looks then mentally slapped herself for eyeing up someone other than Tynian. She couldn't help it! All these men in uniform were so tasty!

The two girls were waved to sit down on already provided chairs. After a long look between Tynian and his sister in law, Tynian vaguely waved a bit of paper in his hands and then spoke up.

"King Obler has sent this message, he wishes to meet with you. Well, primarily he wants to meet Sophie, he has received Queen Ehlana's communication on the subject of you and your two friends, though he also wants to meet the two women I and my fellow knights feel the urge to cause serious public disturbance to protect." Sophie smiled, 'serious public disturbance' didn't really do his actions justice.

XXX

Fran groaned as she leant over the beams of the ship. Though she was not actually throwing up, she felt terrible. She had under estimated the difference in the local definition of sea travel and her own worlds sea travel. The Pride of Dover(a P&O ferries ship the real Fran has sailed on) definitely hadn't made her feel this bad.

Much to her personal relief, the crow's nest reported first sight of land, meaning they were near Thalesia and this sea bound terror was nearly over. If Sophie and Anna wanted to visit her then they could damn well come to Thalesia and NOT the other way round. There was no way Fran was going through another journey like that.

XXX

As Sophie had first noticed when she arrived the Dieran Royal 'Palace' more closely resembled an office block with all the associated attractiveness. She had not, however, ever been inside. It was thankfully rather more attractive inside than out, spruced up with tapestries and the like.

Eventually they were shown into a comfortable sitting room with the absolutely ancient king Obler in it, as well as two early middle aged people, a man and a woman. Both had blonde-brown hair and were clearly related, a fact confirmed when Obler introduced them as his children.

After a certain amount of polite small talk, Obler looked at Sophie disconcertingly directly.

"Ehlana's message about you was rather vague and evasive, Lady Sophie. She states that you come from further away than can be possibly expected but does not elaborate. I was wondering if you could clear up this mystery." He said, clearly choosing his words with care. Sophie and Tynian shared a long look.

"I would tell him everything, though I can't guarantee that he'll entirely believe it. I'm still having some trouble and I know all three of you, of which you are the least obviously different." Everyone else in the room looked confused for a moment before Sophie turned back to explain.

XXX

Two days after their arrival at Bevier's home, Kemaria and the other knights went on to the capital while Anna remained at Bevier's mansion. Fairly quickly, Anna had taken to getting books and curling up in the window seat to read, only emerging for meals and the occasional walk in the picturesque gardens. This suddenly solitary behaviour worried both Bevier and his mother, who suspected she knew exactly why the girl had suddenly taken to self enforced isolation.

The old lady's worries were increased when she had got up during the night and saw the light under the library door and instinctively knew who was in there. As quietly as the old woman could, she snuck inside to see the young girl, in a nightdress and dressing gown, curled up in her usual spot by the window. Alina sat down opposite and waited for Anna to look up.

When she did, she seemed utterly unsurprised to see Alina sitting there, looking at her. After a few seconds, she nodded at the old lady and greeted her before raising a quizzical eyebrow.

"What on earth are you doing up reading at this time, child?" Anna shrugged.

"I couldn't sleep, Lady." She might as well have been talking in monosyllables. Alina sighed, seeing she was going to have to work at this.

"If you asked, the servants could have made something up to help you sleep." Anna smiled wryly.

"I suspect it wouldn't have worked, I've been an insomniac all my life. The difference is, at home I would have read in bed rather than the library. The headboard in my room is rather uncomfortable to lean against so I went somewhere else to read. Anyway, why should I wake the servants because I'm not sleeping?"

"The servants are paid to make our life as easy and comfortable as possible; they expect to be woken if they are needed." Alina hesitated and looked at the dark haired girl. "You seemed to sleep well enough when you first arrived, what has changed?" Anna's lips twisted into a humourless half grin.

"Activity level lady, I slept well for the short time it took my body to recover from the journey but now I am not so active, I don't need the sleep. My body clock doesn't like inactivity." A slight frown flickered across the face of the Dowager Viscountess at the unfamiliar phrase but brushed it off.

"What have you actually been doing in here? Surely not just reading?" Anna picked up a sheaf of paper that Alina hadn't noticed and passed it over wordlessly. After a certain amount of examination, she worked out what was on the paper. Diagrams and notes and what looked to be comparative literature essay plans, each point bulleted out and sorted into paragraphs. Most of it was history and factual stuff, though there was also literature and references to things Alina didn't recognise. She looked up at the girl in surprise, women did not generally do literature reviews and suchlike, even in plan form, to fill time. Anna Shrugged at the enquiring look.

"I like learning. I probably would never write the essays but doing the plan helps order thoughts neatly. Anyway, all those books contain a lot of stuff I probably need to know and don't. It's very interesting." Alina was really quite surprised. She had come across a few scholars at Bevier's university that were truly enthusiastic but she had never come across a girl who was interlectual. Anna was watching her expression. "I had a very good education lady, and there were long periods during my childhood without friends. I always filled the gaps with books, primarily fictional but also historical. Books make good companions, they don't tease or stop talking to you or make life difficult. I prefer them to a lot of people."

"But Bevier said you had two very close friends..."

"I met Fran when I was 17, Sophie when I was 18. For an entire year before that, I had no friends that were much more than acquaintances and the friends I'd had before that were far from good friends." Anna shrugged at the shocked look. "People where I come from aren't always nice and to be totally honest I didn't come from one of the best parts of the world. If someone was interested in reading, studying or anything like that, they got called a boff or a geek and generally got derided. Thankfully I got into a grammar school so all the children there were pretty intelligent and enjoyed learning. It make like a lot nicer, though it didn't stop bullying altogether." A vaguely amused smile crossed her face.

"You know, I can't for the life of me think where you come from for it is nothing like anywhere on this continent and from what Bevier says, it is nothing like Tamuli either." Alina frowned. "If you suffered because you like learning, why are you smiling?"

"Oh, I was just remembering an incident at school that was quite amusing." At the quizzical look, Anna elaborated. "For various reasons, the last two years of the school had both boys and girl and in one of my classes, a history based one with a lot of literature involved, there was a very annoying boy. For an end of term lesson, as a light sort of thing, the teacher first had us act out parts of an ancient epic we were reading before playing a few games. When we were playing one of the games, the boy inquestion did something to really irritate me, again and so, without thinking I walloped him over the head with a wooden sword we had used earlier. Not very hard, of course, but it led to the teachers making sure we were never in the same group for anything and were never sat near each other. I always found that mildly amusing."

For a short while, the pair fell into silence before Alina spoke up again.

"If the lack of activity is giving you sleeping problems, then I think I have a solution." Anna raised an eyebrow. "You don't know how to dance, do you?" Anna shook her head. "Well, since you will be going to King Dregos's court, you will need to learn. Your lessons will begin as soon as I can arrange it! She declared. Anna laughed ruefully.

"I hope your teachers are patient, there is a good reason I follow the motto, dance when no-one's watching and sing when no-one is in the house." Anna grinned as the elder woman laughed softly. She suspected however, that Anna was more graceful than she thought she was.

The next night when Anna went to bed, she found a mug of a concoction that involved milk, brandy and spices, all nice and warm and comforting with a little note suggesting it might help her sleep. She smiled slightly as she drank the surprisingly nice mixture and curled up in the huge bed that inexplicably suddenly had rather more pillows, as if to make reading in bed more comfortable.

Maybe she would get on with her mother in-law after all.


	11. Chapter 11

Aphrael Strikes Again 11

Fran sighed with relief as they reached Heid. She was totally sick of travelling, though the horses had definitely been better than that boat.

Heid was very much like a traditional Nordic cities, though one of the latter ones, since there was a fair bit of stonework amongst the wood. The further they got into the city, the better the buildings got, for which Fran was duly glad.

When they arrived at the Motherhouse, there were several not too subtle looks, though the assorted burly males refrained from wolf-whistles or anything cruder than the wicked looks. She was obviously out of place between being female and her Latin colouring. Out of courtesy, when they arrived, they went straight to visit Komier, the Genidian Preceptor.

Once they had finished with pleasantries, Komier rather bluntly asked about Fran. He proved to have remarkable face control as they explained. Once they were finished, he raised a single eyebrow.

"So you two expect me to let you live together, without any of the customary niceties, here in the Motherhouse?"

"Actually, we were going to go on to my estate after a little rest here, Francesca is rather travel weary so I thought it might be a good idea to give her some rest before going on." Komier nodded slowly.

"What you two do in your own home is your own business, I suppose, but do expect uproar at your living arrangements, especially when it becomes clear that you two are planning on sleeping together." Fran looked a bit surprised at the last comment; neither of them had mentioned that bit. Komier rolled his eyes. "It's obvious that you two have only held off because of travel. Do me a favour and hold off until you are on Ulath's lands. I will not take the slack for you two breaking rules to the extent of sleeping together, out of wedlock, in the Motherhouse."

After they had left the Preceptor's study, the pair were quite quiet for a little while before Fran looked at Ulath.

"You weren't joking when you said Komier was a blunt man, were you?" Ulath just laughed.

XXX

Bevier and Anna looked at each other nervously as Alina marshalled the quartet for Anna's dancing lesson. The older lady wore an expression Anna generally associated with her classics teacher about to inflict another interminable section of _The Iliad_ or possible Arrian's account of the life of Alexander the Great, the two books Anna had hated at school and the two the teacher most loved to inflict. How anybody could enjoy either was a mystery which continually baffled Anna.

As Alina turned round to actually start the lesson, Anna bit her lip nervously and Bevier attempted a reassuring smile, slightly marred by the fact that he didn't seem too enthusiastic either.

XXX

Sophie's campaign had suddenly acquired a bit of a crimp in that Obler seemed to want to spend every free moment he had talking about her world.

In one of the suddenly shrinking number of moments of spare time and peace, she sat down to write to the expert on male management techniques, and another to what was probably the most evil mind on the planet. Between them, Fran and Anna could probably give her some good advice for sorting the males out.

XXX

Fran lay in bed grinning wickedly as she read the letter from Sophie. Ulath wondered back into the room from somewhere, totally unclad. The comment about needing something to hold onto had proven both very true but sort of unnecessary. There wasn't any problem finding things to hold on to, which could often be necessary. Ulath was even better than Craig.

Much later on, once she wasn't otherwise occupied with a certain blonde Thalesian, Fran sat down to write her reply...

XXX

Thankfully, the dancing lessons, and other 'physical' parts of court etiquette like curtseying, were kept for the morning. In the afternoon, Anna learnt to rest of things she needed to know.

Alina seemed to take sadistic joy in her lessons, torturing Anna with the horrors of the overly formal and tradition inscribed customs of the Arcian court including, much to Anna's embarrassment, flirting and propriety. The last thing Anna wanted was to be told how to get Bevier the Arcian way.

After another exhausting lesson in dancing, which was nothing like what Anna was used to, Bevier decided to ask about dancing where Anna came from. They were, by now, walking towards the dining room so it was only Anna, Bevier and his mother, but there was one slight problem. Without thinking, Bevier had used the phrase 'your world' in his question.

Unfortunately, Alina most definitely heard the slip and demanded explanation. After some fast talking, they convinced her that the explanation could wait till after lunch, when they could give it without the presence of the servants. Anna most definitely did not want anyone knowing who didn't have to know.

XXX

Fran leant back against the door frame as Ulath kissed her. Like most things between them, it started off gentle and ended up rather not so. Eventually, Ulath pulled back and grinned, leaning over his girlfriend – to use Fran's phrase. They had semi-adopted the terms from her world, as 'mistress' somehow didn't sound right.

Just as Ulath was about to speak, a busty young woman flounced up in a shirt that really left too much visible for the time of the year. She then proceed to cling to Ulath, gushing about how she had been away ill and so hadn't been able to greet him properly when he arrived, while leaning forward so her ample cleavage very nearly dropped out. As Ulath was trying to extract himself from the girl's hold, Fran poked her arm and raised an eyebrow.

"Erm, darling, I think you'd better watch out, the dumpling seems to be boiling over a bit." That was actually a phrase she had got from Anna's mother, but it seemed eminently appropriate. The blonde girl glared at her whilst tucking in her chest a little and turned back to Ulath to carry on her onslaught. He frowned at her in what he hoped was a warning sort of way.

"Can't you see I'm sort of busy here, Bretta?" he asked pointedly.

"Oh but, I was only trying to see if there was anything you need..." She whined. Fran was rather fed up with this girl.

"Believe me, anything he needs that you can provide, I can provide ten times better, and can guarantee not giving him anything nasty either," she snapped. Bretta huffed and aimed a slap at Fran. Before Ulath could react, Fran had caught the flying arm and punched Bretta solidly in the face, who ran off screaming and holding her bloody nose. The blonde Knight stared at Fran in surprise, who just shrugged at him.

"I know how to deal with clingy bitches, who don't know when things are over or when they are out-classed; happened all the time back home." She shrugged indifferently again as her Knight stared at her in surprise before laughing and shaking his head.

They then returned to what they _had_ been doing before the arrival of Bretta.

XXX

Anna nearly kissed the floor the servant walked on when he interrupted to say a messenger had arrived with a letter for her. He had the perfect timing of ending the very awkward and tense atmosphere that prevailed in Bevier's office after the explanation of Anna's origins.

Anna quickly skim-read Sophie's letter and then re-read it rather more thoroughly, when she realised what it was about, wanting to be sure she had read it right. Her eyes flicked up to Bevier and Alina as she contemplated what to reply and absently muttered 'it's from Sophie' as she thought. If anything, they looked at her more expectantly. Eventually, she looked at the other woman in the room with a wicked grin.

"Alina, do you think you could help me? Sophie has a little problem; I thought you might be able to help me advise her on what to do." Alina grinned, sensing what was probably some incoming fun to lighten the days.

"Go on."


	12. Chapter 12

Aphrael Strikes again 12

While waiting for the responses of her friends to her situation, Sophie brooded on thoughts. On the way to Sarson, Sephrenia and a certain childish deity had explained a certain amount of the basics of magic. Mostly, that it was basically an entreaty to a given deity for help. It had to be done in formal language, the right language and whatever. Well, she wouldn't be entreating Aphrael, not that she could speak Styric. Anna or Fran were the religious experts but maybe, just maybe...

Well, both of them had studied Latin at their school – it had been compulsory at the Grammar School both had went to – and Sophie had done so at University.

Now, that wouldn't be a surprise to a certain little deity, would it? If they could just develop it...

She got down to writing out her ideas to see if it were possible.

XXX

Fran definitely did not show Ulath her letter to Sophie, he probably wouldn't approve of the ideas passed on. Pranking a monarch was probably something the man would disagree with.

The blonde that had been on the receiving end of Fran's temper had sulked around, clearly planning things. One day, Fran came down to the kitchen to find the blonde fussing a young girl of approximately six or seven-years-old and which no one seemed to notice was definitely Styric. Bretta glared at the olive-skinned girl over the child's head.

When the child noticed her presence, she broke free of the blonde and ran to Fran. Fran could not help giving Bretta a superior look before leaving for somewhere private to take the girl. They eventually found a little sitting-room at which point she parked the little girl on a chair.

"What the _hell_ are you doing here, Aphrael?"

"Well, what the _hell_ do you think you're doing? You're supposed to be marrying him, not becoming his live-in mistress!" Fran just grinned at her.

"In the words of old blue eyes, I'm doing it my way."

Aphrael glared at the olive-skinned girl, recognising a hard-to-fight argument when she saw one (though she failed to miss the innuendo Fran couldn't resist putting in). She _would_ however, get what she wanted. She was a deity after all.

The devious little mind began to plot, unaware that, with the next letter arriving, the shoe would be on the other foot.

XXX

Alina, it turned out, was an amazing plotter given half a chance and who knew she had such an evil sense of humour? Anna smirked as she sat in the carriage making its way to Larium, remembering the letter she had sent to her petite friend before leaving for the Court of King Dregos.

They were not going at much of a pace, so it was no surprise when the messenger caught them up with another letter for Anna from Sophie. Even though Fran had been the one who was distinctly text happy at home, here Sophie was by far the better communicator. She didn't spend all her time in bed though, so it wasn't such a surprise.

When Anna opened the letter, she expected it to be the normal sort of new/whinging about Obler letter and had to apply every face control lesson she'd ever learnt not to burst out laughing.

_Anna dearest, I've just had an idea I thought you might like._

_You know they said magic was an application to your given god with proper formality and whatnot? Well it occurred to me that if we asked _our_ God in Latin nicely enough, he might confer the same favours on us. Of course, Hebrew or Greek could be the proper formal language and then we'd be stuffed, but it's worth a try, isn't it?_

_While you're thinking about it, why not pick Bevier's brains on magic, and that of any other person you can get hold of for questioning. It would be a wonderful shock to a certain spoiled young lady if we came out with magic of our own._

_Namárië__, Sophie._

Anna nearly laughed at her friend signing the letter in Tolkien Elvish, both of them having been Tolkien nuts at Uni.

As she thought about the idea, it appealed to her more. Though none of them were exactly fluent in Latin, they all spoke it pretty well and Anna was sure that is she worked on it, she could try some spells. Maybe it would work, it was worth a try.

She laughed quietly at the thought of how many people at home would have had a hissy fit at the idea of asking their God for magical powers seriously.

Oh well.

XXX

Fran opened the latest letter from Sophie in a quiet corner of the library and began to grin as she read. Anna, being the religious one, would probably be best qualified to come up with the spells but, _oh_ it would be fun to get magic and one up on Aphrael.

She leant back, thinking.

_I wonder what the feminine form of 'Cave Canem' was?_

XXX

Anna grinned out the window as they entered Larium. King Dregos' castle marked the skyline. In a truly ancient way, the castle was built on the tallest hill in the area, bang in the middle of the city, on more than slightly precipitous ground. On the next highest hill, a few hills away, was the Cyrinic Motherhouse, also an impressive building. It was to this walled and moated variation on the motte and bailey castle layout that they were aiming for.

Though it was probably the best design of castle Bevier could come up with, Anna was comparing it with more modern castles from her own world. Mostly her relative local Deal and Walmer castles, which had even more structural innovations in their building. Just because those had both been built in the Tudor era where cannons were in use, didn't mean that in this arrow age, some of the differences couldn't be improvements. Anna smirked; Aphrael almost certainly would _not_ appreciate her introducing her world technology level to this world. The Styric deity didn't like warfare and would not appreciate Anna making the Elenes even better at it.

Anna was so tempted to make a few comments on the thought of annoying Aphrael alone.

Being in the coach meant that she could not really observe the little entrance ceremony to the Chapterhouse, but it did not take long before they were rolling into the courtyard that was very much like castle courtyards everywhere.

When the coach stopped, a novice opened the door and first helped Alina then Anna out of the carriage. Bevier then led them up to the office of the Preceptor, where there were already two young Knights standing guard.

When they entered, a tall, olive-skinned man rose from one of the chairs and formally greeted Bevier as Preceptor. He then offered a courtly bow to Alina, the soul of graciousness. As he bowed, Bevier formally introduced him.

"Mother, Anna, this is Sir Vyvin, the Castellan of the Motherhouse while the preceptor is not here." As Bevier had been speaking, Anna had been examining the man's features. He had the characteristic colouring of Arcium and stunningly chiselled features, but his most noticeable feature were bright aquamarine eyes that glowed with life. He must have been around Bevier's age, though Anna had never been a good judge of age.

When he turned to Anna to great her, his eyes went slightly wide and then took on some sort of glow. As he bowed and took her hand to kiss her fingertips, those eyes never left her face and when he spoke, it was in a voice of richest velvet chocolate, dripping with sophisticated seduction.

"My fair Lady Anna, this must truly be the house of God, for only God could have granted such beauty and then had the grace to reveal it to me."

Not entirely sure what to do, Anna simply tried not to blush too hard.

*"*"*"*"

AN: First, for motte and bailey layout, I mean the castle is on a separate hill with a bridge down to the town and is walled. It has rather more modern in actual architecture than the wooden one at least English kids study at school. Think more of Bodium Castle (look it up on the internet, its the 'perfect castle' largely because it was built just as castles were becoming defunct – the noble who built it wanted a castle so there and had a licence to crenallate so could do what he wanted) if you're wondering. BTW, if your ever in the area, Bodium castle is great to visit and perfectly fine to take children to.

AN2: I use the word Castellan because it is an accurate word for the guy who looks after the castle and steward didn't seem right. David Eddings doesn't use the word but he also never talks about the stewardship of the motherhouse while the preceptor isn't there.

AN3: If anyone spots the absolutely terrible pun in this chapter, blame Runescape – got it from there (and blame my dad for me knowing any runescape puns). Hopefully my readers will forgive the pun more than my Beta presently looks like she's going to.

And this is the end of the authors notes...


	13. Chapter 13

Aphrael Strikes again 13

That night, once Sir Vyvin had gone wherever, Anna decided to have her first try at magic. While no one was looking, she flicked her hand in a vaguely magical gesture and murmured under her breath,

"_In vino veritas_." Anna had no idea if it was going to work, or the exact effects. She was _trying_ to turn his wine into some sort of truth serum – without it appearing to change at all. Bevier didn't seem to notice any difference.

After a short wait, Anna asked his opinion of Vyvin. Alina gave her a confused look; when they had asked earlier, Bevier had given a politically polite answer while his jaw tensed slightly. This time he seemed shocked before gabbling a rather more honest answer.

This time, it was a rant. Anna had great trouble not laughing as he went on, and on, and on. Phrases like 'slimy', 'greasy', philanderer' and 'creep' all turned up while he moaned about the guy flirting with Anna, he did admit Vyvin was good at his job, but that was the only nice thing he had to say. Shortly after, he used the phrase 'my Anna', Anna decided it was time to retire and just about managed to get to her room before collapsing laughing. Not long after, Alina walked in.

"What the hell did you do to him?" She was glaring at the younger woman. Anna looked up at her senior for a short while before deciding it was better not to keep things from Alina.

"Well, while we were travelling to Chyrellos, we learnt something about Styric magic and in a letter recently, Sophie suggested we try our own, by using the formal religious language and applying to our own god. You saw the result of my first experiment earlier." Alina's eyebrow had been steadily rising throughout the explanation.

"What exactly did you do?"

"I tried to make his wine into truth serum so I could find out what he _really_ thought of Vyvin. I didn't expect such spectacular results, though." Alina's mouth pulled a little before she gave in and grinned.

"Alright, I will admit that was funny." Her eyes suddenly lit up with mischief. "Why don't you use that spell on the wine barrels at King Dregos' court? It would be seriously funny to see the lot of them telling the truth and apparently not able to stop telling it." Anna snorted at Alina's sense of humour. Once again, she thought that Bevier must have got his father's sense of humour; he definitely did not have his mother's.

XXX

Sophie grinned as she watched the Knights train. Unfortunately they weren't shirtless, they were in full armour, but it still looked cool.

Her sudden amount of time increase was quite refreshing. She absently grinned at Amaeria and Alcinaera, who were hiding their part in it rather well. They had been disturbingly enthusiastic about the advice Sophie had received from both friends. Actually, the letters they had sent had been near identical. Who knew that Anna's soon to be mother-in-law had such a wicked sense of humour, though?

Sophie grinned in satisfaction, knowing that with travel round this world, it would be days before Obler and his retinue would be back from the wild goose chase they'd been sent on and by then two things would have happened.

The first was that the two little devils in disguise standing either side of her would have managed to muck up via ingenious pranks his government more than enough to keep him too occupied to pick her brains. She absently hoped he liked pink, and the interesting murals he'd come back to, though. She was vaguely worried about the cocktail of drugs that they'd somehow slipped into the servants' wine, but the effect would be more than worth it.

Sophie smiled sweetly at the massive-shouldered Knight, who had raised his visor to smile at her before carrying on training. Once the practice was over, she would have to go and pack. They were going to the country...

XXX

Fran read the letter Sophie had sent her about magic again, debating. Though she wasn't going to actually try magic yet, she might try and come up with spells or Latin phrases she could remember to use.

It wasn't like she had much reason for magic yet; she had something large and blonde to keep her more than fully occupied.

She would see what the other two came up with first, she had no doubt that if it worked, it would work for wonder-girl Anna first. Anna, after all, was the religious one and the one who read all the magical stories all the time. Fran was more into the vampire books – well mostly, she was with Anna on the subject of burning anything written by Stephanie Meyer. That was one author who definitely brought out Anna's pyromaniac instincts, though for different reasons than Fran's.

XXX

The day after they arrived, they had to present themselves at the court of King Dregos. Anna was more than slightly nervous. Ehlana was one thing, the King of this excessively formal kingdom was quite another.

Dressed in a stunning blue silk dress that complemented her wonderfully, she followed behind Bevier and beside his mother. The entire Court was watching her and her legs were going wobbly. Anna did not do well with being watched.

When they reached the throne (after having formally been called forward), Bevier clankingly bowed before stepping aside and introducing his mother, already sunk into a deep and formal curtsey. It would not have been proper to rise before the King said so. Anna had followed the example as she had been told and was hoping they would be allowed to rise soon, she was not in the most comfortable position.

"And the young lady is Lady Anna, who Queen Ehlana has placed in my care; I believe she has contacted you about the young lady?" Anna heard the King reply, though didn't see it. She was surprised by the feel of a soft hand under chin and heard the soft command to rise. Gratefully, she did so to look up at the man in front of her. He was around her age with that same Latin colouring that all the Arcians seemed to have.

He was exceptionally well dressed and had a simple gold band round his brow. In slightly suspicious confusion, Anna looked at King Dregos, who was smiling wryly.

"My second son, Lady Anna, Prince Keldan. I believe he is taken by your exotic looks." Anna tried very hard not to look disbelieving. Apparently she failed. "I do not know about where you come from, but your skin colour and paler hair are unusual here in Arcium, most Court beauties are olive-skinned and thus you count as exotic here."

Anna flushed, not sure what to say and trying not to look at the Prince. Was that was what had been behind Vyvin's comments? He supposed 'exoticness' combined with what she would classify as 'reasonable' looks. Not ugly, but not all that special. Did this mean that every guy in Court would try for her? Ego-boost it may be, but...

Keldan's expression was worrying. Anna had never dealt with guys chasing her very well and this was a _Prince_. Dregos seemed to take pity on her sudden shyness and dismissed them after a little obligatory small talk.

XXX

Fran grinned as she read Anna's letter. She could just imagine Bevier ranting under the influence, though a part of her wanted to point out that wine would loosen the tongue anyway.

Anna's obvious distress at being fancied was just funny, though. That girl had never dealt well with come-ons. Neither had Sophie really, though that had an awful lot to do with the fact that Sophie was a raving romantic with highly exalted ideas about males.

Despite both Anna and Fran trying to get it through her head that all guys thought with their groins ultimately and love had a lot to do with sex, Sophie still thought like a romance novel. Anna was at least aware of the facts of life like that. Then again, Anna was a prize winning cynic.

As she was about to sit down to write her reply, she had a thought. Dredging up her Latin, she decided to try a spell of her own.

"_Animus Animo Loquimur_," she muttered and grinned as she touched her friend's startled mind.

Bingo!


	14. Chapter 14

AN: As you might have noticed, posting has significantly speeded up, this is because i plan to have this entirely posted by the 26th June as thats when i go on holiday. Hopefully you'll enjoy the last 7 chapters or so.

Aphrael Strikes Again 14

Anna and Alina sat side by side in the royal gallery with the Queen, apparently Alina had been a Lady-in-Waiting before marrying and the Queen wanted to re-acquaint herself with the lady and thus Anna came to so as to be properly chaperoned. The concealed gallery above the hall had excellent acoustics and they could hear everything they wanted to. All three of the ladies were nearly in hysterics. At Alina's prompting, Anna had tried the truth serum spell on the wine barrels for the Court and, sitting out of sight, they were listening to the effects.

It had turned out Queen Marianna had much the same sense of humour as Alina, hence the pair's closeness. They hadn't told her exactly how they had turned the wine into truth serum, just that they had and she was appreciating the effects with them.

"**Oh, Anna!"** A voice called in Anna's mind. Anna nearly jumped out of her skin at her friend's voice in her head. Thankfully she was able to cover it with a fit of laughter-induced coughing. Both women present just grinned at her and went back to listening.

"**Fran! What. The. Hell!"** Anna thought back, trying not to show anything on her face.

"**I just thought telepathy might be possible, saddled up my Latin, and here we are. The spell is **_**Animus Animo Loquimur**_**,****by the way. You wanted advice on men, right?"** Once again trying to keep her face straight, or at least try to pretend she was still listening to the funny things going on below, Anna paused while thinking how to answer those questions.

By the end of the mental conversation (which, though there had been close shaves, she had [amazingly enough] not been caught having), Anna was very pink and very glad that some seriously dirty and inappropriate-for-company comments had just been made below.

As she debated what Fran had said, which was not only embarrassingly candid but accompanied by mental images she was not sure Fran had meant to send, she also debated whether to tell Alina about the new magic discovery. It had all sorts of potential for the lady's sense of humour.

XXX

Fran grinned in satisfaction as she left the library. Well, her first attempt at magic had gone well. That and the fact that she had managed to surprise Anna well and truly. She got this impression that she would like the Arcian Queen, however, well bar the fact that the lady obviously could do propriety better than Fran could.

XXX

Being out of Acie to go to Tynian's country estate had its perks, but the major downside was the travel. Sophie had never appreciated cars before now. She tucked herself up in a corner of the carriage, preparing to doze off when she heard Anna's voice in her mind. Thinking boredom was making her hear things, she shook her head slightly.

"**Sophie, will you **_**please**_** listen to me? You are not imagining this and I have not sent you insane. You were never sane anyway."** Not exactly taking that as reassurance, Sophie hesitantly thought back.

"**How?"**

"**Fran worked it out, I'll tell you the spell in a minute. You thought of any spells yet, or found any uses for them? You've got my letter about the truth serum spell?"** Typical Anna, too many points in a sentence. Apparently, mentally she had the same problem as when speaking (or typing); her brain went much faster than her mouth (or the technology).

"**No, no spell yet, though I may come up with them later. Yes, I did get your letter about the truth serum. I so wish I could have seen that with Bevier, it sounds hysterical. Did you use it on the entire Court like Lady Alina suggested?"** Sophie could sense the accompanying amusement, as well as getting several images, first of Bevier then the Court.

"**Oh yes, we semi-told the Queen about it – what we were doing, but not that it involved magic and sat in a hidden alcove where we could hear everything. That's the point Fran tried out this spell, thankfully I was able to disguise my reactions as laughter or whatever at the things we were overhearing."** Sophie had to try hard to look like she was still dozing; the images and things she was getting from Anna were really very funny.

"**Anyway, I'd better go, Alina wants the maids to primp me for some do or other. Bevier's working his ass off being interim-preceptor and being over-protective – why can't he just get his head out of his gluteus maximus and claim me? If he wants guys to stop going after me, make me flipping well unavailable! Sorry, 'scuse the guy-related-rant."** Sophie sent a mental laugh. **"Back to the subject, got to go now. Happy travelling!"** Sophie grinned and wished her goodbye, then, when the communication was cut off; realised Anna hadn't told her the spell.

XXX

As she walked beside Alina and Queen Marianna, Anna studiously ignored more than one lecherous glance from the males, seriously uncomfortable with all the attention and hummed under her breath. Today had been Service Day, the local equivalent of the Sabbath and Anna now sat with the Queen for the service, as Marianna had taken to her after the truth serum wine incident.

When they sat down in an informal sitting-room with the King and both his sons, as well as a daughter, the King looked to her with a questioning look.

"What is that tune you were humming? It sounded much like a hymn of praise." Anna smiled, and looked away from the look on Keldan's face. She was very glad the older Prince was happily married.

"Oh, it is a hymn. The hymns in the service reminded me of some of the older hymns from where I come from. That one is called 'Guide me, oh thou Great Jehovah' or sometimes 'Guide me, oh thou Great Redeemer'. It's quite popular, especially at big festival and in Methodist churches." The King nodded, and then frowned.

"Methodist churches?" Anna smiled.

"A sect of the Church that believes in simplicity and all that. Traditionally they are tee-total, that is they don't drink. That's because they were founded to help those in the working-class, who had got addicted to drink to get back to God. They're very much into a certain type of big powerful hymn that can be sung with the big booming voice that seems to be common amongst workmen." The Royal family smiled, while internally Anna winced. That explanation seemed so pompous, but even so, it did sound like how the entire Court talked like. If anything, it was less pompous than most of the Courtiers.

Marianna was nodding enthusiastically.

"What a good idea! A sect of the Church which helps bring those poor men and women affected by drink and other vices back to God! That should be suggested to Sarathi. We spend so much time converting foreign heathens; maybe we should concentrate on those within our own borders!" Anna resisted wincing at the Victorian sounding comments. Dregos smiled at her approvingly.

"Maybe you could sing this song for us, it sounds nice and we should aim to always reach greater heights in praising God." Anna smiled slightly and nodded her head, acting for all she was worth.

"As you wish, Your Majesty." As she sung, Keldan watched her like a hawk and she could virtually see him saddling up a compliment for her once she finished and attempted to come up with an answer before he got a comment in. Why couldn't the guy get the hint that she was not interested?

XXX

Mentally praising every god out there, Sophie soaked in the bath the servants had brought to her room.

When she finished, a maid came in and helped her out and then into a dress made of some of the most decadent fabric she'd ever seen. It mostly closely resembled a fabric she'd once seen described in a book Anna had shown her for some reason.

The description had went along the lines of 'three different heights to the pile of figured velvet and quite two ounces to the yard of gold in the pile, too; a cloth of tissue of great luxury and taking a weaver quite two-thirds of a year to weave enough for that single robe'. If it was as rich as that, then Sophie was wondering what the Hell justified her having a dress of it.

The actual dress was a rich pearl-grey colour that shimmered with the gold woven into it. It felt very strange to wear the rich fabric and she sat very still, quite self-conscious as the maid dressed her hair in a delicate, but complicated style. Once the maid was done, she was accompanied to a room, which proved to be a library. She was led through the library to a formal dining-room, where Tynian was waiting for her.

The table, Sophie noticed, was set for two, but clearly had been done up specially. She had to raise her eyebrows at the beautifully done up table, covered in a rich cloth and set with silver cutlery. There was what looked to be some very expensive wine on the table.

"Alcinaera and Amaeria are catching up with some friends from the area for the night, so we are alone together. I know it is slightly improper, but I think everyone knows I would do nothing to damage your reputation or honour." He seemed unusually nervous as he said it and seemed relieved when Sophie just nodded.

Throughout the meal, Tynian kept getting even more nervous until at the end of the meal, while Sophie was doing her best to pretend she liked the very good wine, when he stood up jumpily, much to Sophie's surprise. He rushed to reassure he nothing was wrong before looking down for a few moments before getting down on one knee.

"Sophie, erm," he winced at his own hesitation. "Would you do me the honour of being my wife?" He rushed the question out. Sophie stared in surprise, she hadn't thought he'd already got to that point, not that she was going to object.

Without a second thought, she flung herself into his arms and kissed him.


	15. Chapter 15

Aphrael Strikes Again 15

Ulath walked into the room, staring at the letter in his hand with a frown; Fran looked up at him quizzically.

"What is it?"

"Dolmant has called us back to Chyrellos, I don't know why. I have a feeling it is about our living arrangements."

"We should get packing, then?" Ulath nodded and Fran swore under her breath. When she had made sure she was somewhere private and would be uninterrupted, she utter the telepathy spell under her breath, sending her thoughts out to both of her friends.

XXX

Sophie spun around the room indulging in some seriously childish expressions of joy. She had come up with a silencing spell of a sort similar to the one Anna had described as one Sephrenia had used in the 'Tamuli'. It meant she could be as loud as she liked.

It was a good job she had, as she squealed in surprise when Fran's mind touched hers, swiftly followed by Anna's. Three way mental conversations won the prize for weird, she decided.

"**Sophie, Anna!" **The voice called. After two affirmative responses, she carried on. **"I think I have a little problem."**

"**Oh?"** That was Anna unsurprisingly.

"**Ulath and I have been called back to Chyrellos, Ulath thinks because of our living arrangements."**

"**They're going to try and force you to marry?"**

"**I think so..."**

"**Which means I think I have to get a move on with Bevier, then; any ideas, you two?"**

"**Seduce him"**

"**WHAT! Fran, you have got to be joking!"** Fran sent an unrepentantly amused thought to her friend.

"**He's obviously not going to get the idea himself. If he's slept with you then he will feel honour-bound to marry you."** It sounded so obvious when Fran said it.

"**Er, and how would miss good little Christian girl know how to seduce a militantly celibate guy?"**

"**Love spell? Can't imagine you doing the 'Dance of the Veils' for him. Ouch!"** Anna had just sent a mental kick to her friend. Sophie was just sniggering.

XXX

By the end of the conversation, Anna was red as a tomato and wanted to die.

She rushed out of the castle library, attempting to get somewhere, anywhere in fact, that she could do something to save herself from the embarrassment. Fate, however, was not on her side.

Alina yanked her into a room as she saw the younger woman rush past, clearly embarrassed. Once in there, she demanded an explanation. Anna uttered the spell Sophie had passed on to make sure that anything said didn't pass outside the walls of the room, and then explained.

Alina, mercifully, remained silent for the entire explanation and at the end only raised an eyebrow.

"You are trying to convince my son to marry you? And your friend suggested seducing him to get him to ask you?" Anna nodded. Alina's face split into a grin.

"This is going to be _so _fun! You will make an excellent daughter-in-law!"

"Fun, indeed." Both heads whipped round and went white as they saw Queen Marianna standing there with a raised eyebrow.

XXX

Fran had always loved snow and she loved it even more now because it meant they could not leave for a little while.

When she had mentally called her friends to tell them of this, Anna had seemed rather distracted and Sophie was, well, still on a cloud about being engaged. Of course, neither Anna nor Fran was supposed to know she was engaged, so they had to hide their excitement until the letters arrived.

Absently, she wondered what was getting Anna, it obviously wasn't Bevier, well not Bevier just yet.

XXX

Marianna had taken the 'full' explanation well and had gone right on to tips on how to get Bevier into bed.

Both the Queen and Alina had taken to the idea of seducing Bevier surprisingly well; it was scary. They both worked very hard to do everything to get the two together and set up a good situation. Conveniently enough, Bevier (by complete co-incidence or possibly divine intervention) obliged them unknowingly.

He had gone outside the city to a very secluded bit of forest, where he had found a well hidden pool to swim in. What he was doing swimming at this time of year was a mystery to Anna, but he was. When she got there, she found out. It was actually a hot spring and _very_ nice. It was also fairly large.

They had carefully made sure that Anna was on the other side of the pool and then they had left her there on her own to get on with it. They were, however, in mental contact with her.

Once she felt eyes on her, knowing, courtesy of another spell, that it was Bevier watching, she started to act. She made a slight show of testing the water out first with her hand, then with a toe where she had taken off her slipper. Then she absently unlaced her dress enough to remove it so she was only dressed in the linen shift that was what passed for underwear round here. It was more than Anna used to wear in the winter half the time.

After some hesitation, she dived into the water and began to swim. She'd forgotten how much she enjoyed that. Once Anna surfaced from the water, she shook her hair and uttered the spell that had been concocted to get round Bevier's sensibilities, as she could feel him near her.

"Anna," she heard him whisper and turned to the Knight, who was shirtless and sopping wet.

Neither of them stayed in the pool for very long, there was a rather convenient grotto-type cave at one side of the pool and they went there instead.

Bevier didn't notice Anna say under her breath 'terminus', thus ending the mental contact in favour of privacy. As she leant back and let Bevier take the lead, Anna smile contentedly. This was _nice._

XXX

Sophie smiled as she showed off the diamond ring Tynian had given her for her engagement. Earlier, Tynian had got news of Ulath and Fran's recall, so to speak, and was going to use the occasion to formally announce their engagement, wanting to tell his friends about their engagement to their faces rather than by letter.

On the subject of letters, she would have to write another letter to her friends, since she wasn't planning on explaining about their telepathy any time soon.

She went back to gushing with the maids, who all wanted to see their soon-to-be Lady's engagement ring.

XXX

Much later, Anna woke to the feeling of a hand stroking her face and opened her eyes to look into Bevier's eyes, which were grave.

"Anna! I'm sorry I shouldn't have..." Anna raised an eyebrow. Bevier gulped slightly. "I know this isn't the proper way to ask but, since I have sullied your honour with my actions, I must."

Anna tried not to be hurt, knowing that the entire point of the exercise was for him to marry her to maintain her honour, but it still hurt slightly. Men! She just curled further into his chest.

"Do you love me?" Anna's eyes shot up in surprise. Bevier seemed to take that as a no; that combined with her utterly shocked expression. His face became melancholy and he sighed. "I'm too old for you, I know, I had hoped you loved me as I you, but..."

He didn't get any further as Anna kissed him quite passionately.

"You love me? You really do, I thought you were going to ask me to marry you purely because you'd taken my virginity!" It was Bevier's turn to look surprised.

"You love me? I..." Whatever he was going to say didn't get said as Anna kissed again. Several times.

"You want to marry me, and you love me?" she asked. Bevier nodded. "Good, now shut up and kiss me!"


	16. Chapter 16

Aphrael Strikes again 16

Fran breathed a sigh of relief as the skyline of Chyrellos rose across the skyline. She could have kissed the ground at the sight of their destination. She glared at Sophie, Alcinaera and Amaeria, who were all looking rather amused. In what Fran suspected had been a planned move, they had gone via Tynian's country estate and picked up the entire bunch. Though Fran didn't mind having her little hobbit with her again, nor having female company, she did mind the way they all found her aversion to travel very funny.

She spurred her horse on, trying to get away from the mutual amused expressions, only to be followed with laughter. She turned and mouthed a word at Sophie, which just made Sophie laugh harder.

"Meh!"

XXX

Alina had insisted on going with them to Chyrellos and seemed to travel rather better than Bevier thought she would, not that that was hard.

Marianna had been suitably delighted and had thrown a party at the palace to celebrate their engagement. Keldan's smile had been a bit fixed throughout, as had Vyvin's. Apparently they were not amused at having been beaten by Bevier. Tough luck for them, Anna thought. Men!

Alina squealed girlishly, bringing Anna back to the present as she looked out the window and saw the walls of Chyrellos, shining and new, now they had been rebuilt after the siege.

When they arrived at the Basilica, they were immediately escorted up to the informal sitting-room that they had first met the three Knights in, where they were greeted by a large group of people, most notably Fran and Sophie. Much to her surprise, Bevier leant down and whispered in her ear as her friends rose to greet her.

"Does Fran still need something to hold onto?" Anna tried to keep a straight face, she really did. The long suffering look on Fran's face implied that she both knew she was the butt of a joke and that she had already been the butt of many others. Once Fran had finished hugging her, Anna grinned and raised one eyebrow, looking pointedly at Ulath.

"Tigger?" Both Fran and Sophie collapsed laughing.

XXX

Fran glared at Dolmant very hard. Ulath looked resigned. Everyone else looked as impassive as they could.

"We _have_ to marry? What, just coz you think our living arrangements are improper for a Knight of the Church? You have got to be _kidding_ me!"

"Fran," Anna said in a conciliatory tone, used to her friend's sometimes wild temper, "If you want to let off your annoyance, go vent at a certain manipulating child-goddess of Styricum, who almost certainly set this up. Ever heard the phrase 'don't shoot the messenger'?"

Fran glared at Anna for several minutes.

"So it's _carpe dea_, then?" Anna grinned at Fran for a moment until she noticed Princess Danae suddenly seemed stricken and almost struggling, like she'd been seized.

"Er, Fran, I strongly suggest you say _terminus_ right now," Anna suggested tensely. Fran, and everyone else at the table, followed Anna's gaze to the Princess. Eyes going wide, Fran did as Anna suggested and the Princess went back to normal – except that she seemed stuck between shock and going ballistic. In a last ditch attempt, Anna attempted something she personally considered highly foolhardy.

"_Tempus desino_._"_ Much to her amazement, it seemed to work, with only the people she wanted within the 'time stop'. That was, Fran, Sophie and Aphrael. Now the child-goddess _did_ go ballistic.

"What the Hell just happened? How are you three able to do magic, especially not Styric magic, but a sort I've never come across!"

"We applied to our god, using Latin," Anna replied. Aphrael glared at them, not entirely able to complain. There was no reason they shouldn't after all. Sophie spoke,

"Would you be so kind as to remove from everyone's memories all the bits from Fran going nuts onwards?"

"Why don't you three, since you're so good at magic?" Anna answered the sulky little question.

"Because we're just experimenting and have no idea what our spells are going to do half the time. You wouldn't want us to accidently remove the memory of your existence from everyone's minds, now would you? Or for Ehlana to find out who you are and go insane because of it."

Aphrael glared.

XXX

Fran sat, staring at the ring on her finger, as a dress-maker fussed round the three girls, helped by Amaeria, Alcinaera and Alina; the triple 'A' battery as Fran had named the trio – mostly due to their amazing energy.

Somehow, goodness knows how, they were going to have a triple wedding and this was a united dress-making session. Thankfully, white wasn't necessary here, though Anna was having one in white, but neither Sophie nor Fran was.

Sophie's was to be 'dusty purple' as she called it, a colour somewhere between lilac and purple that shimmered with the satin fabric her wedding dress was made from. Fran's was a slightly darker, more vibrant shade of purple than Sophie's, but made from silk-taffeta.

XXX

Sophie and Alcinaera tried not to run along the corridor giggling like children, they really shouldn't have been spying on Anna and Bevier, but it was funny. They could both predict a certain lightening up of Bevier's attitudes very shortly into his marriage.

Alcinaera let out a slight squeal as she bumped into someone and nearly fell, stopped mostly by that person's arm wrapping round her waist and catching her.

Sophie stopped and was about to ask if Alcinaera was OK, when she noticed the flush spreading over the girl's face as the young Pandion holding her righted her, looking at her face all the time. Sophie didn't know exactly who the young Pandion was, but she had seen him a couple of times in Pandion armour.

With a slight smile, she uttered the 'notice me not' spell so they wouldn't notice her there. The effects were slightly different this time; she had discovered that the intent resulted in the outcome of the spell more than anything. A part of her suspected she could speak any random Latin and what she intended to happen would.

The young Knight, somewhere not too far into his twenties, smiled slightly at the young woman and politely apologised for knocking her over. Alcinaera, of course, immediately answered that is was her fault for not looking where she was going. The conversation was almost Mills and Boon worthy. Ever the romantic, Sophie grinned and wondered off to find her friends.

XXX

Both of her friends seemed to find the story very funny, though Anna also rolled her eyes at the cliché.

What none of them noticed was a little, dark-haired girl sitting in the corner with a calculating expression.

XXX

The Elene god sat with Aphrael in his arms, watching the goings on of the mortals below and as they watched the first the meeting of Alcinaera and Berit, he sighed. He could just feel the intent and planning radiating off his little cousin.

He knew better than to even try to keep Aphrael from sticking her nose in and he had limited area to complain. Technically, she was getting him more worshippers, though he privately suspected she was just planning on poaching them at some later date.

He sighed, trying to think of something to distract the little girl in his lap.

"Isn't it time your High Priestess got pregnant?" He was more than slightly worried by the way she perked up and grinned insanely at him at the idea. Suddenly, the Elene god did not envy Sephrenia and Vanion.

AN: I will post a latin dictionary at the end of the story translating all latin used, as well as giving you several extra phrases. Some are quotes, others taken from fun latin books and some from a latin translator so are not necessarily guaranteed to be absolutely good latin. If you know its not good latin, do tell - my actual grasp of the language is crap.

AN 2: If you're wondering what the Tigger comment is about, its the name real person who Fran's based uses for her boyfriend. The reason for this pet name is the line in the Tigger poem 'his top is made out of rubber and his bottom is made out of springs', i'm pretty sure you can work out the dirty meaning in that if you think about.

Any of you who read my dawnstar universe stuff will have already come across the nickname and its origins so yes Fran and Charlotte are the same person (though it might amuse you to know that Craig, her boyfriend, got rather defensive about the nickname).

If you don't get it, your probably too young to understand so i won't explain.

GaiaCaecilia


	17. Chapter 17

Aphrael Strikes Again 17

The wedding ceremony was a weird one and the bridesmaid a touch more smug than excited – it was a certain Princess Danae after all. The adult escorts were the triple-A battery, who were all glowing nearly as much as the brides. Despite more than one groan on her part, even Fran looked excited. All three males – as per tradition – looked nervous.

Dolmant, who was actually the doing the wedding (many impressed upon the girls just how great an honour this was), seemed to find it even funnier than he had Sparhawk's wedding – if the stories were anything to go by. Ulath in particular didn't seem to appreciate his humour.

As they stood there 'listening' to the sermon on the joys of marriage or whatever, Anna couldn't help noticing two things. First, was that the Elene ceremony seemed remarkably like the Christian white-wedding one; secondly, that both her best friends seemed like they were pretending not to be bored. Bevier looked to be the only person getting married that was actually interested in the sermon.

The hymns, however, could do with some improvement. Maybe they could ask Aphrael to import Charles Wesley next? Anna nearly had to snort at that idea.

XXX

After the ceremony, there was a feast and ball, where Fran had to pretend she could dance, much to the amusement of her friends. Ulath, thankfully, was of the same mind. Unfortunately, there were a few other people she had to dance with as well.

While she was dancing, she noticed her two best friends, who were both wearing evil grins, talking to Ulath. That was the point at which Fran began to worry. She always knew when the two of them were up to something.

When she got a moment, she cast the telepathy spell. The responses to her query about what they were up to both confirmed her suspicions and told her nothing she needed to know.

"**What the hell are you two up to?"**

"**Nothing."** The two chorused in unison.

XXX

Anna and Sophie stood, wrapped in their new husbands' arms, trying to not show their amusement and evil smirks too much as Ulath prepared to take them up on a suggestion.

The two caught each other's eyes and giggled slightly before looking away to prevent full-on laughter. The two mischievous Classicists has taken it into their heads to explain to Ulath the Roman origins of the Christian wedding ceremony, including the kidnapping bit that related to the rape of the Sabines. They had sort of twisted the truth as _little_ bit about how this bit got transferred to modern times.

Once the evening meal was over, Ulath watched his new wife with a certain amount of calculation similar to the sort he had applied to getting her to talk to him.

Eventually (though it probably wasn't that long), Ulath got bored and just strolled over to Fran, and easily lifted her over his shoulder before walking out. Everyone watched the couple in shock, right until both Sophie and Anna burst out laughing. At that, everyone turned to the girls. Sophie was the first to speak.

"I didn't think he actually believed us!" She choked out between gasping laughs. Dolmant quirked an eyebrow at her. "We told him a slightly edited version of the origins of the wedding ceremony where we come from. I didn't realise he actually believed us when we said about 'kidnapping the bride'," she clarified and collapsed laughing again.

After a few seconds disbelieving silence, first Tynian, then Sparhawk, and then Bevier began to laugh. Eventually everyone was laughing. Not long after that, the other girls retired.

XXX

Sophie woke to starlight and the soft tickling sensation of a fingernail running gently across her back, just below her neck. It was soon followed by a path of feather-light kisses across her neck as Tynian worked his way up to her ear.

"Are you ready for round two, my lady?" he whispered. The petite girl rolled over into her Knight's arms and kissed him soundly.

"What do you think?"

Tynian laughed and tenderly kissed her. Sophie smiled, even though both Anna and Fran had told her that knights in shining armour didn't exist... well, she'd just have to make sure that Tynian kept his well polished so she could rub their faces in it.

XXX

Anna could have nearly killed her mother-in-law, who insisted on coming into their bedroom (Anna could have sworn they had locked the door) at some ungodly hour of the morning, armed with food and fuss and whatever.

It was one of the few days in the world she had no problem sleeping past dawn and she got woken up for no apparent reason other than evilness. She hoped Sophie and possibly Fran were suffering the same treatment.

Eventually, Alina looked at them innocently and asked why both of them looked rather nonplussed. Anna, the one far less inclined to politeness that early in the morning, answered,

"Alina, I love you dearly, but if you want any chance of grandchildren, do not barge in here at an insane hour of the morning without a _really_ good reason. And by good reason, I do not mean your own evil sense of humour."

The older lady grinned at the pair and simply walked out. Anna was considering killing her mother-in-law, when Bevier, who was not much more awake than Anna, pulled his bride down, rolled on top of her and kissed her rather insistently.

Now Alina was gone, he apparently wanted to try for kids. Anna was more than happy to comply.

XXX

Fran woke to her hands tied to the bed post and Ulath, stark naked, above her. He grinned wickedly.

"I didn't get to engage in enjoying this last time."

Fran rolled her eyes back with a groan, she anticipated long hours of sweet torture. At least he was imaginative – and she didn't have to find something to hold on to.

XXX

Berit watched the young lady sitting in the library with soft eyes, glad that the occasion had temporarily got rid of Alcinaera's chaperones. Unfortunately, he had no idea how to talk to the girl.

She looked up from her book and smiled shyly at Berit, eyes soft and friendly. She really was beautiful.

As he moved forward to sit at the table and talk quietly to her, he noticed a cough.

In the next alcove along, where the young lady-in-question couldn't see them, were Alina and Amaeria, both wearing sweet smiles. Berit smiled nervously and nodded at the pair, getting the unsubtle hint. Tynian's niece was not _entirely_ unchaperoned.

As he sat down, very aware of his watchers, he and everyone else failed to notice a conniving little girl in a nearby part of the library, who had now freed herself of what she was sure were deliberately restrictive shoes chosen purely for a certain trio of brides' sadistically subtle revenge.

The seriously uncomfortable bridesmaid dress must have been so, she was sure.

Oh well, at least she had other entertainment while her three latest pawns were otherwise occupied.


	18. Chapter 18

Aphrael Strike Again 18

Not long after the three couples emerged from their rooms, letters for the other continent had arrived and Ehlana was eager to share.

When they once again sat down in the sitting-room, the blonde queen was all but grinning and Dolmant bore a certain resemblance to an indulgent, if resigned, grandfather. The expressions on the faces of the newly married Knights faces suggested the expressions were something to worry about. Once they sat down, Ehlana decided to enlighten them.

"We've had letters from Sephrenia and Sarabian! Sarabian is coming on a state visit to Chyrellos, and Sephrenia is pregnant." All three Knights, as well as several other people in the room, got glazed sort of looks.

"I'm guessing that this is the first time that you told anyone other than each other?" Anna asked. Dolmant nodded slightly, wearing a wry smile. Berit looked a little white.

"Did he say whether Sarabian was bringing his wives?" he asked. Anna tried very hard not to laugh, remembering from the books that it was Elysoun Berit was worrying about. The triple-A battery looked a bit confused by the young Knight's pallor. Ehlana and the Knights apparently knew. At first, Tynian looked as amused as the other Knights and then his eyes widened as he looked between Berit and his niece. Apparently, he had only worked out that there might be a relationship there. His expression turned protective almost immediately after the dawning look happened. All three otherworld girls tried to stifle laughs at the play of expressions.

XXX

Several months later, the trio of girls and their Knights (in shining armour, yes) returned to Chyrellos. Fran and Ulath had actually gone to Elenia, and after the state visit to Chyrellos, they would visit Arcium first then go back to Thalesia via Deira. This was partly because Fran wanted to prevent being on a ship as much as possible.

They arrived a few days before the imperial party and the changes in the city were obvious. The citizens of Chyrellos had clearly gone all out to show the foreigners that the siege eight years previously had not destroyed the holy city. In fact, they had very much done a phoenix act – they had risen up out of the ashes and done everything possible to make the city even better.

The embassies of the Elene kingdoms had been rebuilt in more modern, if fortified, style. Many other palaces had been rebuilt by assorted patriarchs. Notably none of them belonged to the supporters of Annias. Everything had been smartened up – you couldn't see a ragged corner anywhere. Well, anywhere that there was _any_ chance of the foreigners of seeing. Anna privately suspected that the Thieves' Council had also got together for the event.

They were all dressed up spectacularly for the event and waited for Sarabian of Tamuli on the steps of the Basilica. All the major Elene monarchs were there to meet the man that few on that continent had ever seen before.

Sarabian stepped out of the carriage and looked around before proceeding up the steps to be followed by a notable _seven_ of his nine wives, from two carriages. Cieronna, Elysoun, Garhennas and Liatris from one, and the others from a second one. Anna suspected the conspicuous absence of the Cynesgan and Arjuni Empresses had something to do with the troubles of the previous year; the two had actively tried to kill Sarabian. Also in the party was Itagne and his now wife. Oscagne was notably absent as well; Anna suspected he had been left behind just to make sure that Sarabian would return to an empire. The Emperor was probably not particularly trusting of his government right now.

The identities of the party could partly be told from her knowledge of the books – Sarabian was obviously the Emperor, Cieronna walked in front of the others, Liatris was clearly an Atan and that was the only identification she really needed; Garhennas was done up to the neck like a Victorian governess or possibly a teacher at that school in Jane Eyre (Anna hadn't liked the book much when they had done it in English) and Elysoun was both very beautiful and carrying a young child. Itagne was the urbane looking Tamul with a rather possessive looking Atan holding his hand. That raised the odd smile among those who had been in Tamuli.

Once the formalities had been dealt with, they retired to the sitting-room for a bit of informality. With some relief, Sarabian removed his formal robes to reveal an Elene doublet and hose, as well as a rapier. The look of surprise on the non-Elenian rulers' faces was interesting, though Ehlana looked rather self-satisfied, especially when Sarabian greeted her rather more fondly than the formality outside had allowed. The mischievous grin Elysoun shot Berit made the young Knight blush and a slightly confused look to cross Alcinaera's face, as well as the others who were as yet unaware of Berit's and Elysoun's previous liaisons.

After some small talk, Sarabian turned to Fran, Sophie and Anna, who had sat together on the 'safety in numbers' theory. None of them had _ever_ been round quite so many royals at once.

"So you three are the otherworldly ones Aphrael brought to this world?" That comment got the immediate attention of everyone in the room. Thankfully for the girls, missives had been sent to each ruler explaining their origins, even if it hadn't been explained to the respective courts. All the same, they still received many interested looks. Sarabian decided to elaborate on how he had attained his knowledge. "Sephrenia and Vanion explained the story to me; I've been quite interested in meeting three people from another world. I was hoping I would have the opportunity to learn more about your worlds, possibly learn some new languages?"

Anna, Fran and Sophie looked at each other, unsure of what to say. Anna got selected as spokesperson once again.

"We can tell you a certain amount about our world, though it might not be a good idea to tell you about everything. Our world is rather more advanced and not everything is nice. We've told a fair amount to Dolmant, our Knights and those others in the select group that went to Tamuli about our world, much of which they had trouble believing, but we're not planning on revealing many of the less pleasant things. As for languages, well the only one we could really teach you is Latin, though we have a smattering of a grasp of several other languages – only enough to get along really. It's kind of ironic really that the only language any of us really speak is an ancient, generally dead language reserved for medicine, science and classics freaks. Or people who had to learn it at school, like Fran and me. Our school had the odd pretention of poshness, I sometimes think."

Sarabian smiled at them again.

"Well, whatever you're willing to tell me, I'll take. I am fascinated." Anna smiled hesitantly back.

"As long as you don't mind Fran and I exhibiting wildly different political views and the ensuing arguments sure to ensue if you bring that up, as well as the fact that the three of us are all university students and bound to talk like it." Itagne perked up at the mention of university.

"You three went to university? What did you study?" You could tell he wanted to ask more questions, but was holding himself back.

"I did Politics and Philosophy, though I planned to go on and do postgraduate studies in Classical Civilisations – bit hard to explain what that is. Sophie was doing Classical and Archaeological Studies and Fran was doing Religion and Teaching. Don't be fooled by that though, she is very political. I'm sure the main reason she didn't want to do Politics at Uni was because she knew all her rose-tinted illusions about humanity would be wiped away and she'd be brought round to my way of thinking. And we couldn't have that; we'd have nothing to argue about. Her father might have disowned her for it as well..." Anna grinned at her friend, who was glaring at her, recognising the dig for what it was. Anna grinned back unrepentantly.

"I'm guessing you two have wildly different political view, then?" Anna laughed.

"Fran believes the world is fluffy enough that a 'Utopia' could be formed where everyone was equal and all that. I'm a realist, or a pessimist according to the world's optimists. I believe that humanity is flawed, and we're generally selfish bastards at heart and that the world is always gonna suck for someone." Itagne, and the other rulers in the rooms smiled slightly at the blunt way the girl put it. King Dregos was the next to speak.

"That seems unusually politically aware for young women."

"Different worlds, different attitudes. Fran and I were brought up politically aware, we've been involved in local level politics since we were about fourteen. Our world has significantly less discrimination against women, though there is never going to be none. Prejudice is one of humankind's favourite pastimes and reality is that it's never gonna change, but women have it pretty good relatively and it's a lot less patriarchal than it was even a hundred years ago and definitely better than here."

The discussion went on until they were called in for dinner, and all three girls but Anna most, were extremely glad for the break. A large group of people accustomed to getting answers to their questions could be a real pain at times. The only thing that had salvaged those hours for the girls was watching the uncomfortable looks from Berit as he looked between Elysoun and Alcinaera. Sophie had also noticed a few protective looks on the part of Tynian and made a mental note to 'talk' to him later.

This visit was going to be...

Interesting.


	19. Chapter 19

Aphrael Strikes Again 19

Alcinaera sat the corner of the presently deserted sitting-room reading a book and thinking about Berit. There was something strange about the young Knight's behaviour round the Empress Elysoun, she wondered what.

Well, think of the devil, she thought as the woman walked in, nursing her child. She looked up and smiled at the younger girl.

"Would you like to hold Izara?" Alcinaera grinned and carefully took the baby girl into her arms. They sat in silence for a short while as Alcinaera fussed the young child and Elysoun watched. Eventually, the Empress spoke,

"You and Sir Berit seem fond of each other, Lady Alcinaera." She nodded at the older lady, who then carried on, "You noticed that there seems to be something between us?" Once again Alcinaera nodded, wondering where this was going. "While he was in Tamuli, we were intimate for a time."

Alcinaera stared at the woman. She had hardly expected the Empress to freely admit not being faithful to her husband. Elysoun laughed at the expression on her face.

"Your Sir Tynian has obviously not explained Valesian custom to you? Until we are with our first child, we are allowed to be very friendly with anyone we please. I decided, when the Knights came to Tamuli that I wanted Berit and, after a _lot_ of persuasion, I got him." Alcinaera stared at the woman for a few moments, blinking in surprise.

"I'm not surprised Uncle didn't explain that to me..." She hesitated. "Err, how much persuasion?"

Elysoun smiled again, slightly mischievously.

"A direct order from Prince Sparhawk helped rather. I think he will require less persuasion from you as marriage is involved rather that a much less formal arrangement. It will be interesting to get him without your guardian flying off the wall..." Alcinaera groaned, and then looked up, frowning.

"Are offering to help, my lady?" she asked cautiously. Elysoun smiled slightly.

"He's a nice boy who needs a nice girl, child." She didn't say anything else, but took the child, who wanted its mother.

XXX

Thus the matchmaking began in earnest, Alcinaera nervously accepting the help of several too-enthusiastic females.

Sophie's part in this mostly consisted of keeping Tynian out of the loop, something that did accord her much teasing for her methods. None of the males noticed a thing different, but a certain tiny princess seemed rather too self-satisfied.

XXX

Much to everyone's surprise, when an imperial messenger brought letters for Emperor Sarabian, he also brought letters for the three girls. Each letter was formal and from Sephrenia. Once Anna had read hers, she peeked over the shoulder of friends to see what was written. Pretty much the same thing, it seemed.

The three girls looked at each other, silently agreeing not to explain the entire contents to the assemblage. Anna, as usual, got selected to respond to the questioning looks. She sighed slightly, saddling up her political brain to think of how to explain without giving away everything.

"Apparently, Aphrael wanted to _formally_ tell us that our God is a little pissed off at her nicking us. For some reason she felt it necessary to formally tell us this, hence the letter from Sephrenia." At the multiple weirded-out looks from the assorted people in the room, Anna shrugged. "Goddesses?"

More than one person laughed.

XXX

Not too long after, Sparhawk managed to get the terrible trio on their own, with him and his daughter, who was happily perched on his lap. Sparhawk looked singularly suspicious.

"What was in those letters that you didn't mention? Madam here won't tell me." Anna had to smile slightly at the fact that she and Fran had obviously affected Sparhawk's vocabulary, he hadn't called Danae that until they had.

"That in recompense for stealing us three, He wants three people back and we get the pleasure of choosing who gets dropped in it." Sparhawk closed his eyes in resignation. Sophie, however, tipped her head to the side.

"It's a pity Tynian slaughtered all of Amaeria's relatives and associates, really. It would have been funny to drop them in our world and get them to survive there. And I can think of so many wonderful places to drop them as well." The Knight flinched slightly at her dreamy, contemplative tone. There was something singularly worrying about it.

"I'm guessing you don't miss your home world too much if you're willing to subject people like that on it." All three girls snorted cynically.

"There are far worse than them there, and they have power," Sophie replied. Both Fran and Anna coughed. One sounded suspiciously like 'Thatcher' and the other like 'Blair'. Sophie shook her head at the blatant politicism of her friends. Sparhawk raised his eyebrow.

"I shan't ask who they are..." he sighed and rolled his eyes. He guessed it was _another_ one of their little 'jokes', for lack of a better description. "Do you three have any better ideas as to who you're going to get rid of?"

In a unison that spoke of much practice, all three girls looked up in the air, pursed their lips and 'hmmed' before looking down at him again and grinning.

"Nope!"

Sparhawk sighed again. This was going to be a long day.

XXX

Berit looked rather worried as he took the most petite of the otherworldly girls aside.

"Erm, Lady Sophie, would you be able to talk to Sir Tynian for me?" The little redhead raised an eyebrow. "I would, erm, like to know if, erm..."

Sophie took pity on the highly nervous young Knight, who was obviously mentally hitting himself over his head for his incoherence.

"You would like to know if I can get him to accept your suit for Alcinaera without either being killed or set the Herculean Labours?" A flicker of confusion went across Berit's face at the classical reference, but he nodded. Sophie smiled.

"Don't worry; he'd be a damned fool if he objected. I'll make sure you're OK." Berit looked more than slightly relieved.

Once he was gone, she suppressed a girlish squeal and ran off to tell her co-conspirators.


	20. Chapter 20

Ahh! Its the last one (though i shall be posting a Latin dictionary after this - not all latin can be guaranteed to be good, i got some off a translator, some out of a fun latin books or 3 but i have tried. My latin isn't nearly as good as my character's latin. Shall get my beta who speaks latin better than me to check it through before posting however.)

ENJOY!

Aphrael Strikes Again 20

The three girls sat with Aphrael and Sparhawk in one of the more remote parts of the basilica talking about the people they wanted to send back home. Aphrael, as ever, was demanding.

"Have you three actually decided on whom to send? Your god is getting annoying. He keeps bugging me!" she sounded rather sulky. The three girls looked at each other trying not to laugh at the idea of God nagging her. It was an interesting image.

Fran was the first to speak.

"No need to nag me about it, I'm not being difficult. That annoying bitch, Bretta, is definitely my choice." Both Sophie and Anna snorted with laughter. Fran could be quite pissy about those competing with her for guys. Aphrael then turned to the other two girls, asking if they had any ideas for who they'd send to their world.

Anna hesitantly spoke up next,

"My problem being choosing exactly which person to send back. Mostly due to lack of inspiration, I'm going for the two Bevier wants to get rid of, Sir Vyvin or Prince Keldan. I have a bad suspicion that both of them would have nothing with keeping trying for me even though I'm married, but I suspect Keldan would be _slightly_ more be problematic. On the other hand, it would be much harder for him to disappear without..." She trailed off from the spoken train of thought at the raised eyebrows of those round her. Fran looked like she wanted to roll her eyes and make a rude comment, but Sophie actually got there first,

"Well, since Tynian has sort of murdered everyone I'd like to get rid of, you can get rid of them both instead of my one, if you want." Anna grinned at her tiny friend and turn back to Aphrael.

"Will that do, your divinityship?" Aphrael glared slightly at the form of address, a pet name Anna had given her that she most definitely did not approve of; she had this suspicion the girl was taking to teasing her.

"I suppose so; now to work out how to get rid of them."

"I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself doing that." Anna said with a mischievous grin, earning another glare.

XXX

Once again, they were sitting in a large group talking when King Dregos looked at the girls with a quizzical look. Anna noticed and asked about what he was wondering.

"Oh, I noticed that, like us, you simply refer to your god as 'God', not by any name. Our church has the true name of our god; I was wondering if you actually know it or if there is no specific name or what?" Anna and Fran looked at each other, knowing that Sophie would neither know nor care what the answer was. Once again, Anna got selected to answer.

"Well, some sects put names on him and if you translate the original Hebrew from the Bible, I think they use the word 'Yahweh', though some people call him 'Jehovah' as well – mostly heretics." Anna would have gone on except for the fact that she stopped to snigger as Fran said,

"Look, all I said was that halibut is good enough for Jehovah!" Sophie was also laughing and at every attempt to prevent the laughter was thwarted by the girls looking at each other again. Everyone in the room looked a little bit confused at the hilarity. Eventually, they got their amusement under control enough to explain.

"It's a quote from a rather irreverent comedy play known as 'the Life of Brian'. There is this rather silly scene where this guy is supposed to be getting stoned for saying the name of God. The story is apparently set around 2000 years ago and is taking the mick out of much of the culture then. All three of us are fond of the comedians responsible for 'the Life of Brian', amongst other things." The Natives seemed a little confused still, but anyway...

XXX

The final night of Sarabian's visit was marked with a humungous party appropriate to the Emperor of all Tamuli. As it got to the time for making toasts, Tynian stood up.

"My Lords and Ladies, I have two announcements I would like to make." He paused to make sure everyone was paying attention to him. "First of all is the betrothal of my niece and ward, Alcinaera to the Pandion Knight, Sir Berit."

The entire hall cheered at the announcement and it took a little while for them to quiet down for the other one.

"Secondly, I would like to announce that my wife is pregnant!" The cheer was even more rousing this time. Everyone liked a new baby.

XXX

The next day, Sophie was rather pink, having received some very candid advice from the assorted mothers among the royalty, including Elysoun. Aphrael was looking singularly content with herself at the announcement. Anna and Fran were blaming her quick pregnancy on having to 'distract' Tynian all the time throughout Alcinaera and Berit's courtship.

After long farewells, the three girls split off to go to their respective new countries with their husbands. Sophie was looking forward to readying a nursery in Tynian's home. Anna was wondering when the three replacements would be sent back to her world and hoped no-one would be able to link the disappearance of the Prince and Sir Vyvin back to her. Fran, well, her thoughts were the type that came with a high rating and would have only been shown post-watershed.

XXX

The three unfortunates in question woke with splitting headaches and looked around them to see a world radically different from the ones they last remembered.

As they came round, they began to panic.

It was Prince Keldan who worked out where they were first, having been the only one in the know about where the three girls came from.

He caught the other two's expressions when he started to swear violently. Eventually he stopped swearing long enough to explain.

"It appears we are in the world of the Ladies Anna, Fran and Sophie, which means we are in Big Trouble." The three looked at each other. Someone out there had an evil sense of humour.

The End


	21. Latin Dictionary

AN: Here are some latin phrases, several of which were used as spells in the story - though not all. These have been read through by my friend who is significantly better at latin than i am (not hard really) but we can't guarantee on them being perfect latin - as already mentioned.

Hopefully it will be for some use to people curious about that Latin.

_INSULTUS LATINUS_

_PODEX PERFECTUS ES. _YOU ARE A TOTAL ARSEHOLE.

_DE STELLA MARTIS VERE VENISTI. _YOU ARE DEFINITELY FROM MARS.

_STERCOREM PRO CEREBRO HABES. _YOU HAVE SHIT FOR BRAINS.

_CAPUT TUUM IN ANO EST. _YOU HAVE YOUR HEAD UP YOUR ARSE.

_FUTUE TE IPSUM ET CABULLUM TUUM. _SCREW YOU AND THE HORSE YOU RODE IN ON.

_Qui habet aures audiendi audiat. He who has ears, let him hear._

_Nunc est bibendum. Now there's drinking to be done._

_Lucratori te salutant. Salute those who are about to get rich._

_In vino veritas. In wine, the truth is found._

_Vinum et musica laetificant cor. Wine and music gladden the heart._

_Animus Animo Loquimur . Mind to mind may we talk._

_Sulum diligo est a miles militis. Quisnam ultum ego diligo non est in diligo. Every lover is a soldier. He who says over much I love not is in love. _(Sorry for the rather bad and flowery translation – I couldn't be bothered to work it out into modern English. Rumrum (the Beta and Latin 'expert' – well, I can insult people (see above))).

_Carpe deo. Seize the god._

_Carpe dea. Seize the goddess._

_Tempus desino. Time stop._

_Terminus. End._


End file.
